variants
also racheting (down)
as in decreasing
to grow less in scope or intensity especially gradually
news stories about the kidnapping will ratchet down as the weeks go by
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ratcheting (down)
Verb
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Authors on the study found that COVID vaccines were roughly 55% effective in preventing hospitalizations associated with the illness and about 50% effective in decreasing trips to emergency rooms or urgent care facilities.
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If one wanted to produce more offense by decreasing drag, mixing in some baseballs with lower seams wouldn’t hurt.
Verb
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Not even a hint of repercussions for diminishing the integrity of the event.
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The 23-page analysis also pointed to escalating public health and social services costs, declining investments in capital improvements and an outsized reliance on state and federal tax dollars as drivers of the county’s diminishing financial health.
Verb
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That number has fluctuated from a high of 115,000 in May to a low of about 16,000 on the day before this column was published, ebbing and flowing as tickets were purchased, new batches were released and FIFA (maybe) pulled back others.
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The emergency itself seems to be ebbing.
Verb
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That has led to the country’s GDP shrinking by roughly 80% since 2013.
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California dunes are shrinking A new study shows California has lost more than half of its coastal sand dunes over the last 165 years, Daniella Segura reports.
Verb
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The first-round showers and storms will move eastward through the rest of Saturday morning with the activity tapering off in the early afternoon.
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For most movies, the opening weekend is the most lucrative, with ticket sales tapering off from there.
Verb
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But the memorandum drafted between Kyiv and Washington on an early-stage drone deal appears to suggest those obstacles may be falling away.
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On Wednesday, Mikel Arteta’s side face Bayer Leverkusen, who sit sixth in the Bundesliga after falling away since their famous unbeaten title-winning season in 2023-24.
Verb
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With only a week of freedom under his belt, Cribbs said Powell is declining interviews for now, reentering the world with some trepidation.
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Investors must focus on forward-looking changes and a clear path for value realization, understanding that a declining stock isn't safer if its intrinsic value falls faster.
Verb
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The fact that travel isn’t letting up despite the higher costs isn’t a surprise, said Adam Sacks, president of Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics consulting company.
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So are tariffs, geopolitical volatility and economic uncertainty that shows no signs of letting up.
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Cite this Entry
“Ratcheting (down).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ratcheting%20%28down%29. Accessed 29 Jun. 2026.
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