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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Example Sentences
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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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Harsh wartime winters have also taken a toll.—
Derek Gatopoulos,
Los Angeles Times,
19 Apr. 2026
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His wife at the time stayed in the Bay Area for work while Taylor spent the winters—and one full year—at Sugar Bowl with the kids.—
Tori Latham,
Robb Report,
19 Apr. 2026
Noun
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The layoffs stem largely from funding changes already set in motion by Los Angeles County, which voted in April 2025 to create its own Department of Homeless Services and Housing, and shift hundreds of millions of dollars away from LAHSA.—
Teresa Liu,
Daily News,
25 Apr. 2026
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Amazon eliminated 30,000 jobs across two rounds of layoffs in January and October.—
Lisa Eadicicco,
CNN Money,
24 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Without any workplace oversight, the baristas did the obvious, padding their breaks by ten, fifteen, twenty minutes.—
Saïd Sayrafiezadeh,
New Yorker,
26 Apr. 2026
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The breaks kept coming for Orlando.—
Chris Hays,
The Orlando Sentinel,
26 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Not all parts of the country seem to have the same pattern, although the data points to school breaks as relative lulls.—
Meg Wingerter,
Denver Post,
18 Apr. 2026
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Acting in a movie involves a lot of waiting around, too—as the crew repositions cameras and adjusts the lighting, among other things—and those lulls provided me with plenty of time to feel queasy with anxiety.—
Naomi Fry,
New Yorker,
14 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Burke spoke only to consent to intermittent interruptions of his preliminary hearing, allowing the court to address other pending matters.—
Nancy Dillon,
Rolling Stone,
23 Apr. 2026
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Quality family time without interruptions or distractions is easily found here.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
23 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Downtimes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/downtimes. Accessed 26 Apr. 2026.
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