decompression
/diːkəmˈprɛʃ(ə)n
/noun [mass noun]
1Reduction in air pressure: decompression of the aircraft cabin...
- An aviation expert added that even a small explosion on board could have been enough to cause decompression and suck people out of the aircraft.
- The plane descended but the reason for decompression could not be found, so the aircraft returned to Oxford.
- This seems like the suggestion of a second-rate Hollywood director, for the single reason that you cannot discharge a firearm in a pressurised environment, because there would be catastrophic decompression.
1.1A gradual reduction of air pressure on a person who has been experiencing high pressure while diving: itching and rashes often occur following decompression [as modifier]: the swim took some two hours, including a one hour decompression stop...
- Deeper and longer diving means more decompression, whichever gas you're breathing.
- Before they return to the surface they will need to undergo a 17-hour decompression in the Aquarius, with atmospheric pressure gradually reduced to that on the surface.
- We discourage dives below 30 meters, especially if decompression stops are required.
2The process of expanding computer data to its normal size so that it can be read by a computer: this disk contains a number of utilities which require decompression...
- Mapping the data prior to decompression reduces the random access memory resources otherwise required.
- The inverse process - decompression - doesn't put any serious load on the memory subsystem.
- I projected how long compression and decompression should take on computers of various speeds by simply scaling actual test results from my 1.7GHz CPU.