wind down
verb/waɪnd ˈdaʊn/
1
To lower by winding, as with a crank or windlass.
Of an object that can be raised or lowered
- Wind down the car window if you want to talk to me.
2
To unwind.
Of a device with a mainspring
- You'd better wind down that wind-up toy before you take it apart, or pieces might go flying.
3
To shut down slowly (by degrees or in phases).
- A program as complex as the Space Shuttle program takes some time to wind down.
- 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.December 15 2022, Samanth Subramanian, “Dismantling Sellafield: the epic task of shutting down a nuclear site”, in The Guardian:
4
To slow, as if coming to an end; to become calmer or less busy.
- The festival seems to be winding down now.
5
Idiomatic To relax; to get rid of stress; to destress.
- After a long day at work, she winds down by kickboxing.
- Derived terms
- winddown