"downward spiral" meaning in English

See downward spiral in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: downward spirals [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} downward spiral (plural downward spirals)
  1. (figurative) A series of thoughts or actions which feeds back into itself, causing a situation to become progressively worse. Tags: figuratively Related terms: circle the drain, death spiral, tailspin
    Sense id: en-downward_spiral-en-noun-DxBAfH5D Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "downward spirals",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "downward spiral (plural downward spirals)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "antonyms": [
        {
          "word": "rebound"
        },
        {
          "word": "upward spiral"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Coordinate term: vicious circle"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A series of thoughts or actions which feeds back into itself, causing a situation to become progressively worse."
      ],
      "id": "en-downward_spiral-en-noun-DxBAfH5D",
      "links": [
        [
          "series",
          "series"
        ],
        [
          "thoughts",
          "thoughts"
        ],
        [
          "actions",
          "actions"
        ],
        [
          "feeds",
          "feeds"
        ],
        [
          "progressively",
          "progressively"
        ],
        [
          "worse",
          "worse"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative) A series of thoughts or actions which feeds back into itself, causing a situation to become progressively worse."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "circle the drain"
        },
        {
          "word": "death spiral"
        },
        {
          "word": "tailspin"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "downward spiral"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "downward spirals",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "downward spiral (plural downward spirals)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "circle the drain"
    },
    {
      "word": "death spiral"
    },
    {
      "word": "tailspin"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "antonyms": [
        {
          "word": "rebound"
        },
        {
          "word": "upward spiral"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Coordinate term: vicious circle"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A series of thoughts or actions which feeds back into itself, causing a situation to become progressively worse."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "series",
          "series"
        ],
        [
          "thoughts",
          "thoughts"
        ],
        [
          "actions",
          "actions"
        ],
        [
          "feeds",
          "feeds"
        ],
        [
          "progressively",
          "progressively"
        ],
        [
          "worse",
          "worse"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative) A series of thoughts or actions which feeds back into itself, causing a situation to become progressively worse."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "downward spiral"
}

Download raw JSONL data for downward spiral meaning in English (1.1kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.