Definition of "downsize" []

• To reduce in number or size: a corporation that downsized its personnel in response to a poor economy. (verb-transitive)
• To dismiss or lay off from work: workers who were downsized during the recession. (verb-transitive)
• To make in a smaller size: cars that were downsized during an era of high gasoline prices. (verb-transitive)
• To become smaller in size by reductions in personnel: Corporations continued to downsize after the economy recovered. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Reorganizing is the word used to describe this overall activity; the word downsize was replaced later with the more accurate term rightsize to show that bigger did not necessarily mean better."
• "One of the first casualties of a corporate downsize is Bobby Walker, a hot-shot sales executive who is living the idyllic life — complete with two kids and a mortgaged picket fence."
• "The way the character would try to minimize this downsize is trying to train himself as much as possible in order to increase the amount of energy he can use at one time."