downshift

plural downshifts

1. CanadaUSA change of direction or a movement downwards.
2. CanadaUSA reduction in quality or quantity.
3. CanadaUSA change in career or lifestyle to one which is not as well paid but less stressful and more personally rewarding.
4. CanadaUSautomotiveA 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

present singular third person downshifts · participle present downshifting · participle past downshifted · past downshifted

1. CanadaUStransitiveTo 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. CanadaUStransitiveTo change (one's career or lifestyle) to one which is not as well paid but less stressful and more personally rewarding.
3. CanadaUStransitiveautomotiveTo 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. CanadaUSintransitiveTo function at a lower rate; to slacken.
5. CanadaUSintransitiveTo change one's career or lifestyle to one which is not as well paid but less stressful and more personally rewarding.
6. CanadaUSintransitiveautomotiveTo 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