downshifting

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

See all 10 meanings of downshift