Trickle-down

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    That flows, especially in limited quantity, from the highly placed to others. not-comparable

    "His name is Harry E Thompson and his Trickle-Down solar heating system is the basis for this book."

  2. 2
    Describing the theory that financial benefits given to the wealthy will somehow be passed down to the poor. not-comparable

    "In addition, it examines the trickle-down effects of economic development as espoused by market theorists in the urban economic development literature. Policymakers in Rockford used the trickle-down logic of market theory to justify a […]"

  3. 3
    Describing a model of product adoption that flows vertically from the upper classes to the lower classes within society. not-comparable

    "Trickle-down patterns are very common for technological innovations, especially when new gadgets come to market with high price tags. The first black-and-white televisions cost more than some automobiles."

Example

More examples

"Tom still believes in trickle-down economics."

Related phrases

trickle-down hypothesis

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