Synonyms

wind-down

American

[wahynd-doun] / ˈwaɪndˌdaʊn /

noun

an act or instance of winding down, as in intensity.

a gradual wind-down in hostilities.

wind down British

/ waɪnd /

verb

(tr) to lower or move down by cranking
(intr) (of a clock spring) to become slack
(intr) to diminish gradually in force or power; relax

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

wind down Idioms

Diminish gradually, draw to a close, as in By midnight the party had wound down. [Mid-1900s] Also see wind up.

Etymology

Origin of wind-down

First recorded in 1965–70; noun use of the verb phrase wind down

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

In a subsequent bankruptcy-court filing, Marriott said: “Sonder collected tens of millions of dollars in advance payments for reservations it now admits it will never honor, spent weeks on a failed restructuring without any contingency plan, and failed to reserve sufficient liquidity to support an orderly wind-down.”

From The Wall Street Journal

“If the PHE were suddenly terminated, it would sow confusion and chaos into this critical wind-down,” the White House said in a memo.

From Washington Times

And don’t overlook the importance of a wind-down routine to help you shift from action to a night of rest and recovery — including that bizarrely busy time your brain spends in REM.

From Seattle Times

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said last month that, as long as the job market data is “decent,” he expects the wind-down of the Fed’s purchases of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities to start next month and be complete by the middle of next year.

From Reuters

The S&P 500 tumbled 2 percent on Tuesday — the worst one-day slide for the benchmark U.S. index since May — as investors faced the expected wind-down of the enormous bond purchases the central bank has made since the start of the pandemic.

From New York Times

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023