downmarket

English

Etymology

down- +‎ market

Adjective

downmarket (comparative more downmarket, superlative most downmarket)

1. Designed for low-income consumers.
2. Of, or relating to the less prestigious sector of the market.

Adverb

downmarket (comparative more downmarket, superlative most downmarket)

1. Towards the less prestigious sector of the market.
   • 2021 December 15, Robin Leleux, “Awards honour the best restoration projects: The Great Western Railway Craft Skills Award: Victoria Arcade”, in RAIL, number 946, page 59:

     Sadly, by the 1970s the arcade had gone downmarket with brash shop fronts and cheap shops, some of doubtful reputation.

Antonyms

• upmarket

Coordinate terms

• midmarket
• upmarket

Verb

downmarket (third-person singular simple present downmarkets, present participle downmarketing, simple past and past participle downmarketed)

1. # (transitive) To render or become downmarket.
   • 2011, Ricardo Gil Soeiro, Sofia Tavares, Rethinking the Humanities: Paths and Challenges, page 37:

     If there has been a genuine dissemination of a certain degree of readership, of artistic interest and, very notably, of musical awareness and response, there has also been a 'downmarketing', a vulgarization of culture […]

   • 2000, Helen Jefferson Lenskyj, Inside the Olympic Industry: Power, Politics, and Activism, page 147:

     As Rob Plant explained, there is a “downmarketing” process when tourists experience problems with their initial accommodation plans and settle for the next level: for example, from one-star hotel down to backpacker hostel.

References

• “downmarket”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.