ramping down

[Dan Goncharoff]

I don't see "off-ramp" and "ramp down" having similar meanings.

"Off-ramp" means to get off whatever path one is on, at least for a while,
like getting off a highway.

"Ramp down" means to gradually decline something, like turning down a dial.
Something can be ramped down permanently, like the closing of a military
base, or temporarily, with a smaller extent of activity than before, but
with the possibility of ramping it up again.

DanG

On Mon, Mar 21, 2011 at 4:46 PM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: ramping down
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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