Word.ws English Dictionary

downshift

Syllables: down·shift/ˈdaʊnʃɪft/US/ˈdaʊnˌʃɪft/

downshift noun: a change of direction or a movement downwards.

Noun

downshift (plural downshifts)

  1. (Canada, US) A change of direction or a movement downwards.
  2. (Canada, US) A reduction in quality or quantity.
  3. (Canada, US) A change in career or lifestyle to one which is not as well paid but less stressful and more personally rewarding.
  4. (Canada, US) A shift of a transmission into a lower gear, as dictated by heavier load on the engine, as for example when climbing a hill or strongly accelerating.
    • The driver, Lindsay, gave me a regal wave at the top after he had completed a series of perfect downshifts[.]2000, Bob Foster, Birdum or Bust!, Henley Beach, SA: Seaview Press, page 197
    Antonyms:
    upshift

Verb

downshift (third-person singular simple present downshifts, present participle downshifting, simple past and past participle downshifted)

  1. (Canada, US, transitive) To reduce (something) in quality or quantity (as effect, scope, speed, etc.)
    • But in this variation on Superbad's wild night of transgression, downshifting the age of the protagonists from teen to tween actually only enhances the stealth, wide-eyed innocence that secretly drives this genre of pre-college hedonism.2019 August 14, A. A. Dowd, “Good Boys Puts a Tween Spin on the R-rated Teen Comedy, to Mostly Funny Effect”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 04 Mar 2021
    Synonyms:
    attenuate
  2. (Canada, US, transitive) To change (one's career or lifestyle) to one which is not as well paid but less stressful and more personally rewarding.
  3. (Canada, US, transitive) To shift (a car or bicycle) into a lower gear.
    • He brought the car to a stop before the bridge, downshifted and then put her at the road again in a rising disciplined snarl along the N.6 to Cannes.a. 1962, Ernest Hemingway, chapter 27, in The Garden of Eden, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1986, →ISBN, page 229
    Antonyms:
    upshift
  4. (Canada, US, intransitive) To function at a lower rate; to slacken.
  5. (Canada, US, intransitive) To change one's career or lifestyle to one which is not as well paid but less stressful and more personally rewarding.
  6. (Canada, US, intransitive) To shift a transmission into a lower gear.
    • In a stick-shift vehicle, the driver must downshift when necessary; in an automatic, the transmission downshifts as needed.
    Antonyms:
    upshift

Synonyms of downshift

Antonyms

Forms of downshift

Noun
pluraldownshifts
Verb
third-person singular presentdownshifts
present participledownshifting
past participledownshifted
pastdownshifted

Origin of downshift

The noun is derived from down (preposition) + shift (“slight change or movement”). The verb is derived from the noun.

Words formed from downshift

Questions about downshift

What does downshift mean?
Downshift means a change of direction or a movement downwards.
What part of speech is downshift?
Downshift can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce downshift?
Downshift is pronounced /ˈdaʊnʃɪft/ (UK).
What is the plural of downshift?
The plural of downshift is downshifts.

Words near downshift in the dictionary

  1. downsend
  2. downset
  3. downsets
  4. downsetting
  5. downsettings
  6. downshift
  7. downshifted
  8. downshifter
  9. downshifters
  10. downshifting
  11. downshifts

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: downshift (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-downshift.wav.

Cite this entry: “downshift.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/downshift. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.