[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 also build-down (bĭld'doun') n. A systematic numerical reduction, especially of nuclear weapons, in which more than one weapon or warhead is destroyed for every new one that is built. [On the model of buildup.] build'-down' adj. |
