filtering down
Trickling through layers
Filtering down describes a gradual process by which something moves from higher levels to lower ones, whether in a hierarchy, through layers of material, or across social strata.
Information filters down from management to workers; wealth supposedly filters down from the rich to the poor; light filters down through a forest canopy.
The phrase often implies slowness or incompleteness—what filters down may arrive diluted or delayed.
It took weeks for the policy changes to filter down to the regional offices.
- percolationLiquid passing through pores
- dripLiquid falling slowly
- drip feedSlow continuous delivery
- trickleThin, slow stream
- seepFlow slowly through
flow · water table · sieve · dissemination · settle · sift · distillation · winnowing · weeding out · sedimentation · streamlining · decanting · cascade · osmosis · droplet · refinement · prioritization · funneling
filtering downfiltering up
Gradual upward transmission
bubbling up · rising up · grassroots movement · escalating · feeding back
filter, filtering, filtered, filters, filtration, filtrate, infiltrate, infiltration, infiltrating