downtime
Americannoun
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a time during a regular working period when an employee is not actively productive.
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an interval during which a machine is not productive, as during repair, malfunction, maintenance.
noun
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commerce time during which a machine or plant is not working because it is incapable of production, as when under repair: the term is sometimes used to include all nonproductive time Compare idle time
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informal time spent not working; spare time
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of downtime
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In Fort Lauderdale, that downtime was spent cycling in and around their luxurious beach hotel and playing a high-end golf course - the PGA National - before a thunderstorm cut the round short.
From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026
The Miami home even has a soccer pitch to play on during downtime.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
Even if infrastructure was developed, the time it takes to charge an electric tractor is too long for most farmers who can’t have downtime during busy seasons.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 15, 2026
Chronic fatigue has become increasingly common in modern life as people juggle heavier workloads and less downtime.
From Science Daily ● May 29, 2026
My mother and sister are home for 18:00—Reflection, a half hour of downtime before dinner.
From "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins
“We’re going to see a traffic jam of patch releases and system downtimes as companies try to apply these patches.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 19, 2026
It intends to use the Siemens Industrial Copilot to reduce production downtimes at its plants.
From Reuters ● Oct. 31, 2023
Greg Becker, SVB’s chief executive, was given to enthusiastic pronouncements on the prospects of start-ups and tech firms, even in recent downtimes.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 2, 2023
But toy sales tend to be resilient in downtimes because parents do not want to disappoint their children, said Linda Bolton Weiser, an analyst with D.A.
From New York Times ● Jul. 21, 2022
He’s shorthanded because only three of the 12 servers he laid off during the downtimes have returned.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2021
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
