From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishtop-downˌtop-ˈdown adjective [only before noun] British English 1 a top-down way of organizing a business is one in which the most important people make decisions and tell the people below them what they should do The company has a top-down management system. a top-down approach to decision-making2 DETAIL#a top-down way of understanding or explaining something starts with a general idea and adds details later
Examples from the Corpus
top-down• Consider the extent to which the approach can be said to be atomistic or holistic, bottom-up or top-down.• Such models receive information from both top-down and bottom-up sources, and feedback exists between all levels.• This alternative design may be based on management needs, a sort of top-down approach.• So far this has been the approach we have made to our top-down dreaming.• It is not only top-down planning that has gone; much of the faith in a strong central state has disappeared.From Longman Business Dictionarytop-downˌtop-ˈdown adjective [only before a noun] a top-down plan etc is one in which you start with a general idea of what you want and then add the details laterCentralised systems of education are organised on a system of top-down management. 