Meaning & use

Downshifting

noun·Everyday

Last updated

The act of voluntarily choosing a simpler, less stressful and lower-paying lifestyle; also, shifting a vehicle into a lower gear.

See it in a sentence

After years in finance, she embraced downshifting and moved to a small coastal town.

He practiced downshifting on the steep mountain descent to save his brakes.

A note on using this word

The lifestyle sense emerged in the 1990s as a reaction against overwork and consumerism.

Words with a similar meaning

simplifyingslowing down

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

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