downshift. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

downshift

SYLLABICATION:	down·shift
PRONUNCIATION:	dounshft
VERB:	Inflected forms: down·shift·ed, down·shift·ing, down·shifts
INTRANSITIVE VERB:	1. To shift a motor vehicle into a lower gear. 2. To reduce the speed, rate, or intensity of something. 3. To simplify or reduce one's expectations or commitments, especially in work hours: “28 percent said that they had downshifted and voluntarily cut back on their income in some way … to reflect changes in priorities” (Carey Goldberg, New York Times September 21, 1995).
TRANSITIVE VERB:	1. To shift (a motor vehicle) into a lower gear. 2. To reduce in speed, rate, or intensity: “The president is downshifting his confrontational rhetoric and reaffirming his readiness to talk arms control” (Newsweek, in Barnhart Dictionary Companion January 23, 1984). 3. To simplify or reduce one's commitments in (one's life).
OTHER FORMS:	downshift —NOUN downshifter —NOUN


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.