| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | reversal of action; reduction of business activity |
| Synonyms: | bad times, bankruptcy, big trouble, bottom-out, bust, collapse, decline, deflation, depression, downturn, hard times, inflation, rainy days, shakeout, slide, slump, stagnation, unemployment |
| Notes: | a choir entering a church is a procession; leaving is a recession |
| Antonyms: | advance, inflation |
| Main Entry: | avoidance |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | eluding; preventing |
| Synonyms: | absention, circumvention, delay, departure, dodge, dodging, elusion, escape, escapism, eschewal, evasion, flight, forbearance, nonparticipation, parry, passive resistance, prevention, recession, recoil, restraint, retreat, run-around, self-restraint, shirking, shunning, steering clear of |
| Antonyms: | meeting |
| Main Entry: | contraction |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | drawing in; shortening |
| Synonyms: | abbreviating, abbreviation, abridging, abridgment, compression, condensation, condensing, confinement, confining, constriction, curtailing, curtailment, cutting down, decrease, decreasing, deflating, deflation, diminishing, diminution, drawing together, dwindling, elision, evaporating, evaporation, lessening, lopping, narrowing, omission, omitting, receding, recession, reducing, reduction, shrinkage, shrinking, shrivelling, tensing, tightening, withdrawal, withdrawing |
| Antonyms: | amplification, dilation, enlargement, expansion, extension, increase, lengthening, spread, stretch |
| Main Entry: | decline |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | lessening |
| Synonyms: | abatement, backsliding, comedown, cropper, decay, decrepitude, degeneracy, degeneration, descent, deterioration, devolution, diminution, dissolution, dive, downfall, downgrade, downturn, drop, dwindling, ebb, ebbing, enfeeblement, failing, failure, fall, falling off, flop, lapse, on the skids, pratfall, recession, relapse, senility, skids, slump, wane, waning, weakening, worsening |
| Notes: | one declines (or accepts) something that is offered; one refuses (or agrees) to accept something offered |
| Antonyms: | betterment, improvement, increase, rise |
| Main Entry: | departure |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | leaving |
| Synonyms: | abandonment, adieu, bow out, congé, decampment, desertion, egress, egression, embarkation, emigration, escape, evacuation, exit, exodus, expatriation, farewell, flight, getaway, going, going away, goodbye*, hegira, migration, parting, passage, powder, quitting, recession, removal, retirement, retreat, sailing, separation, setting forth, setting out, stampede, start, takeoff, taking leave, taking off, vacation, vanishing act, walkout, withdrawal, withdrawing |
| Antonyms: | arrival, coming, entrance |
| Main Entry: | depression |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | economic decline |
| Synonyms: | bad times, bankruptcy, bear market, big trouble, bottom out, bust, crash, crisis, deflation, dislocation, downturn, drop, failure, hard times, inactivity, inflation, overproduction, panic, paralysis, rainy days, recession, retrenchment, sag, slide, slowness, slump, stagflation, stagnation, unemployment |
| Antonyms: | recovery, surge |
| Main Entry: | disappearance |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | vanishing |
| Synonyms: | ceasing to exist, decline and fall, dematerialization, departure, desertion, disappearing act, disintegration, dispersal, dissipation, dissolution, ebbing, eclipse, escape, evanescence, evaporation, exit, exodus, fading, flight, going, loss, melting, passing, receding, recession, removal, retirement, wane, wearing away, withdrawal |
| Antonyms: | appearance, arrival, coming, entrance |
| Main Entry: | ebb |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | regression; decline |
| Synonyms: | abatement, backflow, decay, decrease, degeneration, depreciation, deterioration, diminution, drop, dwindling, fading away, flagging, going out, lessening, low tide, low water, outward flow, petering out, recession, refluence, reflux, retreat, retrocession, retroflux, shrinkage, sinking, slackening, subsidence, sweep, wane, waning, weakening, withdrawal |
| Antonyms: | flow, incline, increase, rise |
| Main Entry: | economy |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | saving, frugality |
| Synonyms: | abridgement, austerity, care, carefulness, caution, curtailment, cutback, decrease, deduction, direction, discretion, husbandry, layoff, meanness, miserliness, moratorium, niggardliness, parcity, parsimony, providence, prudence, recession, reduction, regulation, restraint, retrenchment, rollback, scrimping, shrinkage, skimping, sparingness, stinginess, supervision, thrift, thriftiness |
| Antonyms: | spending, squandering |