as in winters
a period of often involuntary inactivity or idleness
a knee operation that could result in months of downtime for the ski racer
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Recent Examples of downtimes
The average response time for phone calls dropped to 6 minutes from 30 minutes in the prior fiscal year; field office wait times decreased to 23 minutes; and removal of online service downtimes has benefited an additional 125,000 users in a single week, according to the agency's findings.
—
Suzanne Blake, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 Aug. 2025
Suzanne Blake, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for downtimes
Noun
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On average, climate change is leading to shorter and milder winters.—
Simmone Shah,
Time,
26 Jan. 2026
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Although winters here in the South are generally mild, at times, the forecast can and will shift.—
Rebecca Jones,
Southern Living,
25 Jan. 2026
Noun
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There are other factors that contribute to layoffs aside from new technology, like overhiring, the state of the economy and a shift in corporate strategy.—
Lisa Eadicicco,
CNN Money,
31 Jan. 2026
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The scope of the crisis more clearly entered the public eye in September 2023 — one month after CapRadio first announced its staff layoffs — when the California State University system released an audit that found widespread financial mismanagement by the nonprofit.—
Ishani Desai,
Sacbee.com,
30 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Two years later came a series of fortunate breaks.—
Sebastian Stafford-Bloor,
New York Times,
31 Jan. 2026
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The Yum Brands restaurant chain is not expected to appear in ad breaks during pre-game programming on NBC, according to two people familiar with the matter.—
Brian Steinberg,
Variety,
30 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Every squad is going to go through lulls in the conference schedule, other than perhaps UCLA.—
Sabreena Merchant,
New York Times,
16 Jan. 2026
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The offense suffered some lulls in his absence, but second-year wide receiver Ryan Flournoy was able to pick up the production vacated by Lamb in the second half by finishing with 115 yards and one touchdown on nine receptions.—
Nick Harris,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
5 Dec. 2025
Noun
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Google says the new setup is meant to reduce tab overload and interruptions.—
Neetika Walter,
Interesting Engineering,
29 Jan. 2026
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For example, block time each morning for deep work so that critical tasks always get attention before meetings and interruptions take over.—
Sho Dewan,
Forbes.com,
27 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Downtimes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/downtimes. Accessed 2 Feb. 2026.
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