[bild-doun] 
| a process for reducing armaments, esp. the number of nuclear weapons held by the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., by eliminating several older weapons for each new one that is deployed. |
build down
Reduce, diminish, as in Owing to increased vigilance, traffic in narcotics is finally building down. This term, the antonym of build up, came into use about 1980 with regard to reducing the stockpile of nuclear weapons and soon was applied more widely.
