🚗 To change down ⚙️ A lower gear 🌱 To live simpler 📉 A slowdown 💼 A simpler job

downshift

1 5.3

A change to a lower gear in a car or bike to get more power

noun
/ˈdaʊnʃɪft/

: cambio a una marcha inferior

Take your foot off the gas and downshift.
a throttle downshift
a downshift in speed

It's a nice downshift coming into a corner.

Examples

It's a nice downshift coming into a corner.

Doug DeMuro
Uh, brush the brakes and downshift.

Ford v Ferrari (2019)
And let me tell you, nailing a perfectly rev-matched downshift instantly makes me smile.

Blog text (16)
The driver made a smooth downshift to third gear as they approached the steep hill.
During the race, a well-timed downshift allowed him to gain control around the sharp turn.
To improve acceleration, she performed a downshift just before overtaking the slower vehicle.

Synonyms

downshifting

vsdownshift

1 4.4

Move a vehicle into a lower gear to slow down or get more power

is the general term for that same action used as a single word noun

kickdown

vsdownshift

Specialized

7.5

A sudden shift to a lower gear in an automatic car that makes it speed up quickly

refers more broadly to lowering gear for power or control in many vehicles

Antonyms

upshift

1 5.6

The change to a higher gear in a vehicle to go faster or save fuel

Surface Forms

downshift singular

downshifts plural

Morphology

downshift = shift (transparent) = down + shift

The vehicle sense is a direct, literal combination: to move/change to a lower gear ('down' + 'shift').

Etymology

The word downshift comes from down- meaning 'lower' and shift meaning 'move' or 'change', like the shift in a car. A helpful image is moving the gear 'down' to get more power, so a downshift is a change to a lower gear.