toning (down)

verb

present participle of tone (down)
as in tapering (off)

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for toning (down)
  1. decreasing
  2. muffling
  3. blunting
  4. reducing
Verb
  • Increasing exercise and decreasing calories while focusing on building muscle mass may help.
    — Tom Gavin, EverydayHealth.com, 20 Oct. 2026
  • Oil companies realized that many employees were off sick with malaria, decreasing their productivity.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 18 Oct. 2026
Definition of decreasing
Verb
  • As the door swings closed on a sunny Tuesday afternoon, muffling the sounds of traffic, the nook of curiosities comes alive.
    — CT Jones, Rolling Stone, 14 Oct. 2026
  • The actress wears a toasty-looking fur hat and sits cross-legged on the floor, the Canadian road traffic muffling her voice slightly.
    — Lily Ford, HollywoodReporter, 2 Sep. 2026
Definition of muffling
Verb
  • In theory, the clearinghouse would monitor the speed of AI growth without blunting the nation’s competitive advantage.
    — John Caruso, Hartford Courant, 14 Oct. 2026
  • The law is aimed at blunting financial scams that often target older adults, which frequently include prompting victims to withdraw large sums of money at once.
    — Seth Klamann, Denver Post, 12 Aug. 2026
Definition of blunting
Verb
  • Climate policies are reducing emissions Since the adoption of the Paris Agreement just over a decade ago, global renewable electricity capacity has grown three times faster than anticipated, while solar PV build-out has increased seven times faster.
    — Simmone Shah, Time, 21 Oct. 2026
  • The filter also makes the page look like a poster left too long in the sun, washing it out and reducing contrast compared to monochrome e-readers.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 21 Oct. 2026
Definition of reducing
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

toning
toning (down)
toning (up)
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Cite this Entry

“Toning (down).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/toning%20%28down%29. Accessed 27 Oct. 2026.

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