degrow

verb — 2 senses

degrow

verb

Etymology From de- + grow.

1

To become smaller; to shrink.

  • They can eat vast amounts when times are good, and can even ‘degrow’ when food is scarce, consuming their own body mass very slowly, with no ill-effects.2014, Theo Tait, ‘Water-Borne Zombies’, London Review of Books, volume 36, number 5:
  • Essentially, this meant that the markets were expecting the company to degrow and its economic performance to deteriorate.2015, Sanjay Kulkarni, The Value Elephant:
2

To make (something) smaller, to reduce.

  • It seems likely that wealthy countries in Western Europe and North America need to degrow their economies before establishing a steady state.2013, Rob Dietz, Dan O'Neill, Enough is Enough, page 184:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.