deflation

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

• noun The act of deflating or the condition of being deflated.
• noun A persistent decrease in the level of consumer prices or a persistent increase in the purchasing power of money.
• noun The lifting and removal of small, loose particles, especially silt and clay particles, by eddies of wind.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The act of deflating.
• noun In geology, denudation by the action of the wind bearing solid particles.

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

• noun the act or process of deflating.
• noun a fall in the average prices of goods and services; -- usually associated with contraction of economic activity. Opposite of inflation. Compare disinflation.
• noun the reduction of available credit or a contraction of economic activity resulting from or associated with a decline of prices.
• noun the act of letting the air out of something.
• noun (Geol.) the erosion of land structures such as sand or soil due to the action of wind.

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

• noun An act or instance of deflating.
• noun economics A decrease in the general price level, that is, in the nominal cost of goods and services as well as wages.
• noun economics, euphemistic An economic contraction.

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

• noun a contraction of economic activity resulting in a decline of prices
• noun the act of letting the air out of something
• noun (geology) the erosion of soil as a consequence of sand and dust and loose rocks being removed by the wind