ramping down

[Victor Steinbok]

A quick search gives one dictionary hit:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ramp+down
1. to decrease or cause to decrease
2. (intr) to decrease the effort involved in a process

The same page offers a bunch of examples from "periodicals archive",
although it gives no dates. To see the dates, you have to click through:

http://goo.gl/Rh0sG

The list is quite long and terminates in 1985, although there is no
instance of "ramp down" in the 1985 piece. The next one is from 1989 and
is not in military context at all.

http://goo.gl/j3Xr8
Functional electrical stimulation and lower extremity bracing for
ambulation exercise of the spinal cord individual: a medically
prescribed system.
> 8. Deactivate units A, A [prime], B, and B [prime]; allow time to
> "ramp down." 9. Proceed to "walk" mode.

Some of the rest are spurious, but I only checked one other to be
sure--don't think there was any need.

More non-spurious hits at Wordnik:

http://www.wordnik.com/words/ramp-down/examples

One item from Forbes nets a bonus "ramp-off" in a similar meaning:

> Age matters for all professional women, including those who aren't in
> the executive pipeline and/or cut out because they *decide to off-ramp
> or ramp-down* in their child-bearing years-very much the same time
> period as when men are positioning themselves for top spots.

I agree completely with Dan on military context--it's been in use for at
least a couple of decades, at least in semi-specialized periodicals
(e.g., Foreign Affairs) and in press conferences by Congress-critters
and military commanders.

      VS-)



On 3/21/2011 2:41 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> "Ramp up" has been used for a long time, and not just about military
> operations.
>
> If anybody's been using "ramp down," especially in general usage, it
> certainly hasn't been noticed by the OED. Or by me.
>
>
> JL

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