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Glite Dictionary
🚗 Changing to lower gear 🌱 Simpler living
downshifting

downshifting

4.9
Live a simpler life with less work and fewer things
  • noun
  • /ˈdaʊnˌʃɪftɪŋ/
translation icon : simplificación de vida
  • The trend of downshifting reflects a growing desire to prioritize experiences over material possessions among young professionals.

Examples

  • Many people are considering downshifting to enjoy a slower pace of life and reduce their stress levels.

  • So the innovation here is in fact a reversal, a downshifting in pace to produce what Paul calls slow journalism.

  • -And downshifting?

    I'll Be Home for Christmas (1998)

  • That is, for the optimal happiness/downshifting mix, your material well-being should exactly reach that threshold and then stop right there.

    Blog text (15)

  • After years of working overtime, she decided that downshifting to a part-time job was the best choice for her well-being.

Synonyms

low-maintenance lifestyle
vsdownshifting
4.0

A simple way of living that needs little time or effort

is a deliberate move to cut work hours and stress rather than mere ease

How Simple

minimalism
3 5.0
downshifting
4.9
to cut back
169 2.9

Surface Forms

downshifting singular
downshifting plural

Morphology

downshifting = downshift (semi-transparent) = down + shift + ing

The lifestyle sense is a metaphorical extension of the gear-change sense ('shift down'), so the relation is inferable but not strictly literal.

Etymology

Downshifting borrows its image from driving: down ('lower') and shift ('change'). Think of changing to a lower gear to slow the car, so downshifting means 'choosing a slower, simpler life' to reduce stress.