let-down

See also: letdown and let down

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From the verb phrase let down.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈlɛtdaʊn/
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Noun

let-down (countable and uncountable, plural let-downs)

  1. (countable) A disappointment or anticlimax.
    After seeing all the advertisements, the show itself was quite a let-down.
  2. (countable, uncountable) The neurohormonal release of milk in dairy cows or in breastfeeding human mothers.
    • 1990, WJA Payne, An Introduction to Animal Husbandry in the Tropics:
      The majority of peasant farmers in the tropics allow the calf to suckle before milking in order to obtain a let-down of milk.
    • 2004, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding (7th edition), Penguin 2004, p. 54:
      Occasionally a baby will be caught off-guard by mother's strong let-down and he will choke and sputter a bit.
    • 2010, Jan Riordan & Karen Wamback, Breastfeeding and Human Lactation (4th edition), Jones & Bartlett 2010, p. 91:
      Through oxytocin mediation, these afferent pathways become so well established that letdown can occur even when the mother merely thinks of her baby.

Translations

See also

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