What does "tinkle-down" mean?

Modification of the term "trickle-down" to criticize what is felt to be the failings of the latter, with implication that what might be passed down from the rich to the poor is minimal or undesirable.

Tinkle-down

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective

1
Modification of the term "trickle-down" to criticize what is felt to be the failings of the latter, with implication that what might be passed down from the rich to the poor is minimal or undesirable. not-comparable
"America has been practicing “tinkle-down” economics for years, and it has failed us."

Example

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"America has been practicing “tinkle-down” economics for years, and it has failed us."

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.