wind down

See also: winddown

English

wind down (third-person singular simple present winds down, present participle winding down, simple past and past participle wound down)

(transitive, of an object that can be raised or lowered) To lower by winding, as with a crank or windlass.
Synonyms: roll down, lower

Antonyms: wind up, roll up, raise

Wind down the car window if you want to talk to me.
(transitive, of a device with a mainspring) To unwind.
Synonyms: unwind, deactivate

Antonyms: wind, wind up, activate

You'd better wind down that wind-up toy before you take it apart, or pieces might go flying.
(transitive) To shut down slowly (by degrees or in phases).
Synonyms: unwind, shut down

Antonyms: activate, fire up, power up, start up, boot up

A program as complex as the Space Shuttle program takes some time to wind down.
- December 15 2022, Samanth Subramanian, “Dismantling Sellafield: the epic task of shutting down a nuclear site”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:
  As a result, Bowman admitted, Sellafield’s scientists are having to invent, mid-marathon, the process of winding the site down – and they’re finding that they still don’t know enough about it.
(intransitive) To slow, as if coming to an end; to become calmer or less busy.
Synonym: taper off

The festival seems to be winding down now.
(intransitive, idiomatic) To relax; to get rid of stress; to destress.
Synonyms: calm down, unwind, chill out, let off steam

Antonym: power up

After a long day at work, she winds down by kickboxing.