step down

See also: stepdown and step-down

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Verb

step down (third-person singular simple present steps down, present participle stepping down, simple past and past participle stepped down)

1. (idiomatic) To resign from office; to abdicate.

   Coordinate term: step aside

   • 2011 December 14, Angelique Chrisafis, “Rachida Dati accuses French PM of sexism and elitism”, in Guardian‎^[1]:

     She now wants to be a Paris MP. But Fillon wants the same Paris seat when he steps down, after next year's election. Both have their eye on the main prize: running for Paris mayor in 2014.

   • 2022 September 21, Mel Holley, “MPs debate Avanti West Coast future as MD departs”, in RAIL, number 966, page 14:

     Late on the previous Friday (September 2), AWC had announced that Managing Director Phil Whittingham "has decided to step down with effect from September 15".

2. To gradually reduce something.

Antonyms

• step up

 

Related terms

• step over

 

Translations

to resign from office

• Chinese: 卸任 (zh) (xièrèn)
• Danish: træde tilbage
• Dutch: aftreden (nl), een stap opzij zetten
• French: démissionner (fr), se retirer (fr)
• Galician: dimitir (gl), cesar (gl)
• German: zurücktreten (de)
• Italian: ritirarsi (it), dimettersi (it)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: fratre (no)

• Polish: ustępować (pl) impf, ustąpić (pl) pf
• Romanian: abdica (ro)
• Russian: уйти́ с поста́ (ujtí s postá), уво́литься (ru) (uvólitʹsja) (pf.), увольня́ться (ru) (uvolʹnjátʹsja) (impf.)
• Spanish: dimitir (es), renunciar (es)

to gradually reduce something

• Danish: nedtrappe (da)
• Galician: reducir (gl)
• German: herunterstufen (de), degradieren (de), erniedrigen (de), deklassieren (de), herabstufen (de)
• Irish: íoschéimnigh
• Italian: scemare (it), diminuire (it)
• Russian: уменьша́ть (ru) (umenʹšátʹ), понижа́ть (ru) (ponižátʹ)

Anagrams

• stew pond, stewpond, downstep