wind down

Verb

wind down (third-person singular simple present winds down, present participle winding down, simple past and past participle wound down)

1. (idiomatic, transitive) To lower by winding, as with a crank or windlass.
   • Wind down the car window if you want to talk to me.

   Synonyms:

   roll down, lower

   Antonyms:

   wind up, roll up, raise

2. (idiomatic, transitive) To unwind.
   • You'd better wind down that wind-up toy before you take it apart, or pieces might go flying.

   Synonyms:

   unwind, deactivate

   Antonyms:

   wind, wind up, activate

3. (idiomatic, transitive) To shut down slowly (by degrees or in phases).
   • A program as complex as the Space Shuttle program takes some time to wind down.
   • As a result, Bowman admitted, Sellafield’s scientists are having to invent, mid-marathon, the process of winding the site down – and they’re finding that they still don’t know enough about it.December 15 2022, Samanth Subramanian, “Dismantling Sellafield: the epic task of shutting down a nuclear site”, in The Guardian

   Synonyms:

   unwind, shut down

   Antonyms:

   activate, fire up, power up, start up, boot up

4. (idiomatic, intransitive) To slow, as if coming to an end; to become calmer or less busy.
   • The festival seems to be winding down now.
   • As the bar event started to wind down past midnight, Ryan and a group of friends walked over to an after-hours house party at a residence on Burfield Drive, parallel to the major ski resorts.2026 August 18, Nicholas Muhoro, “Ryan Shtuka, 20, Vanished After Leaving a House Party at a Ski Resort in 2018. His Walk Home Was Only 300 Metres”, in Skip Boring, archived from the original on 18...

   Synonyms:

   taper off

5. (idiomatic, intransitive) To relax; to get rid of stress; to destress.
   • After a long day at work, she winds down by kickboxing.

   Synonyms:

   calm down, unwind, chill out, let off steam

   Antonyms:

   power up