Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Decreasing in stages.
  • adjective Electricity Serving to reduce voltage.
  • noun A reduction in amount or size.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In electricity, a transformer or other device for lowering the potential in an electric circuit.
  • Serving to convert a current of higher voltage into one of lower voltage: said specifically of transformers and allied devices.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Elec.) Transforming or converting a current of high potential or voltage into one of low voltage.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective That decreases in stages
  • adjective of a transformer, etc. That reduces a voltage

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb give up or retire from a position
  • verb reduce the level or intensity or size or scope of
  • noun the act of decreasing or reducing something

Etymologies

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Examples

  • When differences in ‘productivity’ in health care are the vocabulary in which we discuss healthcare reform, think about the difference between waiting and resting at home for a week before you see your new cardiologist and that week spent in a hospital journey from CCU to step-down to discharge home.

    Matthew Yglesias » Productivity and Medicine 2009

  • Person then progresses thru the hospital system to step-down unit, to various increases in activity level and finally after a treadmill test might be sent home.

    Matthew Yglesias » Productivity and Medicine 2009

  • I don't recall Bill Clinton being asked to step-down by "top" Democrats.

    Bennett: Sanford needs to stop 'embarrassing himself' 2009

  • Karen expressed our wishes to Paul, and right before he announced his step-down, he reverted the rights to us (which we had been requesting for about five years) so we could do the project the way we saw it.

    Image to Publish Former Vertigo Series The Crusades » Comics Worth Reading 2010

  • In the WHC pulmonary step-down unit where many patients go after leaving intensive care, one nurse often has to care for four patients on respirators, said nurse Blondina Mays.

    Washington Hospital Center nurses' labor dispute reflects tensions across U.S. Lena H. Sun 2010

  • The both of you are a disgrace to the American people and you should both step-down.

    Senate Republicans highlight Franken's arrival in new Web video 2009

  • Two years later, Henry was spending every weekend in Canterbury and two days a week at a step-down facility, really a well-staffed rehabilitation unit, which was part of the Cygnet hospital group in Lewisham in southeast London.

    Henry’s Demons Patrick Cockburn 2011

  • The timing of her announcement to step-down was brilliant and lacing it with riddles left the Pundits scratching their heads too dumb to understand her wisom in it all.

    Clinton again rips into vetting process 2009

  • October 2009–present: Cygnet Lodge, a “step-down” facility or halfway house, Lewisham, southeast London.

    Henry’s Demons Patrick Cockburn 2011

  • This will not change without replacing every step-down transformer at the street to provide higher voltage to the home for charging car batteries, and another transformer in the home to further step down voltage to meet the voltage requirements of everything else in existing homes.

    The Volt Isn't Like Early Cellphones 2010

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