scale (redirected from scaling down)

scale something down

to reduce the size or cost of something. The bad economy forced us to scale the project down. Liz scaled down the project.

scale something to something

to design or adjust the size of one thing to match or complement the size of another thing. The architect sought to scale the office building to the buildings surrounding it. The playhouse will have to be scaled to the main house.

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scale back something also scale something back

to reduce the size or amount of something The search for the child was scaled back sharply today, with almost a third of the volunteers heading home. The program was very effective, but the plan now is to scale it back.

Usage notes: also used in the form scale down: The original jury award of $10 million was scaled down to $250,000 by the judge.

Opposite of: ramp up something

See also: back

scale up something also scale something up

to make something larger, esp. a design or model A number of companies manufacturing a line of popular small cars have simply scaled up those models. Engineers did not completely understand what would happen if they scaled their design up.

See also: up