Downflex
adj, noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Something that has been forced to curve downward.
"The southern end of the Rockies plunges gradually along its sharp frontal downflex and passes into the Anton Chico monocline."
- 2 Something that can bend in a downward direction.
"Dinosaurs, as well as growing taller, developed a more pronounced downflex to lower their heads closer to the ground for better cropping techniques."
- 1 To force downward without breaking. transitive
"Second, the unusually thick (2 to 5 km, Berry and Barr, 1971; Hall, 1973; Grantz et al., 1979) sediment cover in Canada Basin may serve to downflex the underlying oceanic crust and produce a greater than normal state of stress across the adjacent margin which is presently coupled to the seafloor basement."
- 2 To bend or stretch downward. intransitive
"The continent edge would downflex as the ocean floor is loaded by a continental-rise prism."
- 1 Showing flexibility in a downward direction. not-comparable
"There is no downward flexibility in expenditure and credit levels. But outputs and supplies are downflex."
Example
More examples"Second, the unusually thick (2 to 5 km, Berry and Barr, 1971; Hall, 1973; Grantz et al., 1979) sediment cover in Canada Basin may serve to downflex the underlying oceanic crust and produce a greater than normal state of stress across the adjacent margin which is presently coupled to the seafloor basement."
Etymology
From down- + flex.
More for "downflex"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.