downshift

A change of direction or a movement downwards.

Noun

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

Hypernyms: gear change

The noun is derived from down (preposition) + shift (“slight change or movement”). The verb is derived from the noun.

To 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...
Synonyms: attenuate
To change (one's career or lifestyle) to one which is not as well paid but less stressful and more personally rewarding.
To 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...
Antonyms: upshift

Hypernyms: shift gears
To function at a lower rate; to slacken.
To change one's career or lifestyle to one which is not as well paid but less stressful and more personally rewarding.
To 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