Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To reduce in number or size: a corporation that downsized its personnel in response to a poor economy.
- v. To dismiss or lay off from work: workers who were downsized during the recession.
- v. To make in a smaller size: cars that were downsized during an era of high gasoline prices.
- v. To become smaller in size by reductions in personnel: Corporations continued to downsize after the economy recovered.
Wiktionary
- v. intransitive To reduce in size or number.
- v. transitive To reduce the workforce of.
- v. transitive To terminate the employment of.
WordNet 3.0
- v. make in a smaller size
- v. dismiss from work
- v. reduce in size or number
Etymologies
- down- + size (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Reorganizing is the word used to describe this overall activity; the word downsize was replaced later with the more accurate term rightsize to show that bigger did not necessarily mean better.”
“One of the first casualties of a corporate downsize is Bobby Walker, a hot-shot sales executive who is living the idyllic life — complete with two kids and a mortgaged picket fence.”
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“The way the character would try to minimize this downsize is trying to train himself as much as possible in order to increase the amount of energy he can use at one time.”
“In other words, we could downsize from a biggish estate to a medium-sized hatchback, and reap the benefits in slightly better fuel consumption.”
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“Unfortunately we’ve had to downsize from a three-bedroom duplex with a yard to a 600-sq-ft apartment, and despite being walked three to four times a day and being taken to Fiesta Island on the weekends, our poor dog is quite put out.”
“Mimi Ritzen Crawford for The Wall Street Journal The couple have decided to downsize, which is the reason for the sale.”
“He's trying to "downsize" his views and infiltrate us normal people instead of being so right-winged extreme.”
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“But the term "downsize" has such a negative connotation.”
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“I'm trying to "downsize" and get rid of stuff, so my children don't have to go through it later.”
“His daughter wants more independence, his would-be girlfriend may get engaged, and his job is endangered by a "downsize" expert, played by recurring guest Frances Fisher.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘downsize’.
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Euphemisms for Being Fired
Corporations just can't tell it like it is. How to tell if you're losing your job.
reduction in work..., rif, terminate, lay off, can, let go, position being el..., transitioned empl..., downsize, streamline, restructure, right-sized and 7 more...
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Killjoy et al
Namely, compounds consisting of a verb with a direct object immediately after it, without inflection
killjoy, lickspigot, quakebuttock, throttlebottom, scattergood, scapegrace, swillbowl, tosspot, breakfast, cutthroat, pickpocket, dreadnought and 84 more...
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Look Busy
Get to work!
ergophobia, elucubrate, karoshi, dogsbody, forswonk, moil, deft, assiduous, panurgic, paperasserie, bumf, blackleg and 91 more...
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BINGO!
Entries from the corporate hall of shame. (There are many wordie versions of this list - please link to yours in the comments section - thanks!)
to architect, to incentivize, drill down, loop back, low-hanging fruit, pre-plan, customer-focused, best of brand, conversate, think outside the..., paradigm shift, going forward and 99 more...
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de-verb this word
Nouns made into unnatural verbs, nouns used as verbs, verbs that used to be intransitive
systematize, alphabeticalize, problematize, impact, monetize, incentivize, actualize, randomize, conceptualize, exit, access, resource and 31 more...
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General
attain, stretch, lever, flock, fraught, taunt, dub, deceive, toss, sentient, stale, brew and 52 more...
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TT1 Lesson 2
date, may, chore, finish, put off, inspect, permission, interrupt, tie, untie, trip, control and 10 more...
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Words and Pseudo-words That Annoy me
If I could burn words, I would burn these. ;P
irregardless, utilize, downsize, reorganization, gravitas, micromanage, can-do, paradigm, proactive, empowerment, dialogue, vertical and 29 more...
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Name Suggestions for Ultra-Compact Cars
A companion list to Name Suggestions for Even Bigger SUVs and Trucks. :-)
Sounds best when you preface each word with "the."speck, iota, minute, mote, dot, jot, mite, molecule, particle, smidgen, morsel, scintilla and 64 more...
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Corp Speak and Biz Talk
Verbing nouns and nounifying verbs from 9 to 5.
heads-up, win win, value add, synergy, proactive, entrepreneurial, collaborative, cost-effective, paradigm shift, leverage, bottom line, off-line and 27 more...
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Buzz Words
synergy, holistic, framework, paradigm, empowerment, leverage, aggregator, brand, collaboration, downsize, immersion, mindshare and 10 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for downsize.
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