Deflation

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  deflation \deflation\ n.
     1. the act or process of deflating.
        [PJC]
  
     2. a fall in the average prices of goods and services; --
        usually associated with contraction of economic activity.


        Opposite of {inflation}. Compare {disinflation}.
        [PJC]
  
     3. the reduction of available credit or a contraction of
        economic activity resulting from or associated with a
        decline of prices.
        [WordNet 1.5]
  
     4. the act of letting the air out of something.
        [WordNet 1.5]
  
     5. (Geol.) the erosion of land structures such as sand or
        soil due to the action of wind. --RHUD
        [PJC]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  deflation
       n 1: (geology) the erosion of soil as a consequence of sand and
            dust and loose rocks being removed by the wind; "a
            constant deflation of the desert landscape"
       2: a contraction of economic activity resulting in a decline of
          prices [ant: {inflation}, {disinflation}]
       3: the act of letting the air out of something [ant: {inflation}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  83 Moby Thesaurus words for "deflation":
     abasement, abatement, abridgment, alleviation, attenuation, break,
     breakdown, cave-in, cheapening, collapse, comedown, contraction,
     crash, cropper, cut, dampening, damping, debasement, decline,
     decrease, decrement, decrescence, deduction, depreciation,
     depression, descent, devaluation, diminishment, diminution,
     disgrace, dive, downfall, dump, dying, dying off, embarrassment,
     extenuation, fade-out, fall, hangdog look, humbled pride,
     humiliation, implosion, languishment, lessening, letdown, letup,
     lowering, markdown, miniaturization, mitigation, mortification,
     nose dive, plummet, plummeting, plunge, pratfall, price cut,
     price fall, price reduction, prostration, put-down, reduction,
     relaxation, sag, sagging, scaling down, self-abasement,
     self-abnegation, self-diminishment, setdown, shame, shamefacedness,
     shamefastness, simplicity, slash, slump, smash, stumble,
     subtraction, tailspin, tumble, weakening