let-down

plural let-downs · alternative letdown

1. countableA disappointment or anticlimax.

   After seeing all the advertisements, the show itself was quite a let-down.

   1 more example

   Journalists aside, are we so used to people looking glossier and younger in their profile photos—whether on social media or for work—that a certain percentage of “let-down” is baked into our expectations of meeting them in person?

   2023 November 25, Rebecca Rose, “How old is too old for a profile pic?”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 22

2. countableuncountableThe neurohormonal release of milk in dairy cows or in breastfeeding human mothers.

   Occasionally a baby will be caught off-guard by mother's strong let-down and he will choke and sputter a bit.

   2004, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, 7th edition, Penguin, page 54

   2 more examples

   The majority of peasant farmers in the tropics allow the calf to suckle before milking in order to obtain a let-down of milk.

   1990, WJA Payne, An Introduction to Animal Husbandry in the Tropics

   Through oxytocin mediation, these afferent pathways become so well established that letdown can occur even when the mother merely thinks of her baby.

   2010, Jan Riordan, Karen Wamback, Breastfeeding and Human Lactation, 4th edition, Jones & Bartlett, page 91

3. countableuncountableaeronauticsThe clearance of an aircraft to descend through clouds to clear air below, or the process of granting such a clearance.

   The flight received a radar letdown from air traffic control.