# downcast
## English
### Etymology 1

The adjective is derived from Middle English doun-casten, *adoun-casten (“(adjective) cast down, dejected; (verb) to break down (something); to overcome (someone); to overturn (something)”), from down (“in a downward direction; (figurative) to destruction”), adoun (“downward”) + casten (“to throw (something), fling, hurl; to overcome (someone), defeat, overpower; [etc.]”) (from Old Norse kasta (“to cast, throw”), from Proto-Germanic *kastōną (“to throw”), from *kas- (“to throw, toss; to bring up”); further etymology uncertain), modelled similarly to other constructions in Middle English such as adoun-throwen (“to throw down”) and adoun-werpen (“to throw down”)). The English word is analysable as down- (prefix meaning ‘lower direction or position’) +‎ cast (“that has been thrown”, adjective).
The noun is derived from the adjective.

#### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈdaʊnkɑːst/, /-kæst/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (General American) IPA: /ˈdaʊnˌkæst/
* Hyphenation: down‧cast

#### Adjective

downcast (comparative more downcast, superlative most downcast)
* Of the eyes, a facial expression, etc.: looking downwards, usually as a sign of discouragement, sadness, etc., or sometimes modesty.
** 1582, Virgil, “The Third Booke of Virgil His Aeneis”, in Richard Stanyhurst, transl., The First Foure Bookes of Virgils Æneis, […], London: Henrie Bynneman […], published 1583, →OCLC; republished as The First Four Books of the Æneid of Virgil, […], Edinburgh: [Edinburgh Printing Company], 1836, →OCLC, page 80:Briefly then heere Dido, with downe caſt phiſnomie, parled.
** [1633], George Herbert, “The Church Militant”, in [Nicholas Ferrar], editor, The Temple. Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to be sold by Francis Green, […], →OCLC, page 186:[A]s before Empire and Arts made vvay, / (For no leſſe Harbingers vvould ſerve then they) / So they might ſtill, and point us out the place / VVhere firſt the Church ſhould raiſe her dovvn-caſt face.
** 1680, John Dryden, “Canace to Macareus”, in Ovid, Ovid’s Epistles, […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC, page 10:'Tis Love, ſaid ſhe; and then my dovvn-caſt eyes, / And guilty dumbneſs, vvitneſs'd my ſurprize.
** 1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Solomon on the Vanity of the World. A Poem in Three Books.”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], and John Barber […], →OCLC, page 502:VVhile Thy abandon'd Tribes ſhall only knovv / A diff'rent Maſter, and a Change of VVoe: / VVith dovvn-caſt Eye-lids, and vvith Looks a-ghaſt, / Shall dread the Future, or bevvail the Paſt.
** a. 1722 (date written), Matthew Prior, “A Pastoral. To Dr. [Francis] Turner, Bishop of Ely, on His Departure from Cambridge.”, in The Poetical Works of Matthew Prior […], volume II, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan, […], published 1779, →OCLC, page 107:Suppreſs your ſigh, your dovvn-caſt eyelids raiſe, / VVhom preſent you revere, him abſent praiſe.
** 1743, Henry Fielding, “The History of the Life of the Late Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great. Chapter VIII. In which Our Hero Carries Greatness to an Immoderate Height.”, in Miscellanies, […], volume III, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book II, page 151:[T]hat dovvn-caſt Countenance vvhich betrays the Man, vvho, after a ſtrong Conflict betvveen Virtue and Vice, hath ſurrendered his Mind to the latter, and is diſcovered in his firſt Treachery; […]
** 1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Two. The First of the Three Spirits.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 69:And yet I should have dearly liked, I own, to have touched her lips; to have questioned her, that she might have opened them; to have looked upon the lashes of her downcast eyes, and never raised a blush; […]
** 1887, John Ruskin, “The Simplon”, in Præterita. Outlines of Scenes and Thoughts Perhaps Worthy of Memory in My Past Life, volume II, Orpington, Kent: George Allen, →OCLC, page 174:But Gordon's downcast mien did not change; and I had to admit myself, when supper-time came, that one might almost as hopelessly have sopped the Matterhorn as the loaf.
* Of a person or thing: cast or thrown to the ground.
** 1600 or 1601 (date written), I. M. [i.e., John Marston], Antonios Reuenge. The Second Part. […], London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, and are to be soulde [by Matthew Lownes] […], published 1602, →OCLC, Act V, scene vi, signature K4, recto:VVhere liues all vvoe? conduct him to vs three, / The dovvne-caſt ruines of calamitie.
** 1691, N[ahum] Tate, A Poem, Occasioned by His Majesty’s Voyage to Holland, the Congress at the Hague, and Present Siege of Mons, London: […] Richard Baldwin, […], →OCLC, page 9:[…] Dovvncaſt Lucifer revolves his State, / VVith his fall'n Angels ſits in Dark Debate, / And from This Conſtellation bodes his Fate.
* Of a thing: directed downwards.
* (figurative):
** Of a person: feeling despondent or discouraged.
    Synonyms: sorrowful, unhappy; see also Thesaurus:sad
*** 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter VII, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume III, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC, page 155:His fine and lovely eyes were now lighted up with indignation, now subdued to downcast sorrow and quenched in infinite wretchedness.
** Of a person or thing: defeated, overthrown; also, destroyed, ruined.

##### Derived terms

* downcastly
* downcastness

##### Translations
#### Noun

downcast (plural downcasts)
* (geology, obsolete) Synonym of downthrow (“a depression of the strata on one side of a fault; also, the degree of downward displacement in such a fault”)
    Antonyms: upcast, upthrow
    a downcast dyke

### Etymology 2

From Middle English downcast (“misfortune”), adoun-cast (“destruction, overthrow”), from adoun (“downward”) + cast (“a throw, a cast”) (from Old Norse kast (“a throw”), from kasten (“to cast, throw”)), from Middle English casten adoun: see etymology 1. The English word is analysable as down- (prefix meaning ‘lower direction or position’) +‎ cast (“act of throwing”, noun).

#### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈdaʊnkɑːst/, /-kæst/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (General American) IPA: /ˈdaʊnˌkæst/
* Hyphenation: down‧cast

#### Noun

downcast (countable and uncountable, plural downcasts)
* (countable) An act of looking downwards, usually as a sign of discouragement, sadness, etc., or sometimes modesty; hence (uncountable, archaic), dejection, melancholy.
** c. 1608–1611 (date written), [Francis Beaumont; John Fletcher], The Maides Tragedy. […], London: […] [Nicholas Okes] for Francis Constable […], published 1619, →OCLC, Act II, signature E, recto:[C]ome lets be ſad my girles, / That dovvne caſt of thine eye Olimpias, / Shovves a faind ſorrovv; […]
** 1722, Richard Steele, The Conscious Lovers. A Comedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson […], published 1723, →OCLC, Act II, scene i, page 37:I ſavv the reſpectful Dovvncaſt of his Eye, vvhen you catcht him gazing at you during the Muſick: He, I vvarrant, vvas ſurpriz'd, as if he had been taken ſtealing your VVatch. O! the undiſſembled Guilty Look!
** 1884, [Richard Doddridge Blackmore], “On the Rocks”, in The Remarkable History of Sir Thomas Upmore, […], volume II, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, […], →OCLC, page 66:And at every such aid, there was a smile to pay; not to mention the downcast of eyes sometimes, and sometimes their uplifting with a soft, sweet light, and the fluttering of lashes in the fresh wind from the sea, and the murmuring of lips, more pink and melodious than any clear Pacific shell.
* (countable, archaic)
** An act, or the situation, of being cast or thrown to the ground.
** (figurative) A defeat, an overthrow; also, an act of destruction or ruin.
* (countable, computing) A cast (“change of expression of a data type”) from supertype to subtype.
    Antonym: upcast
* (countable, mining, chiefly attributive) A ventilating shaft down which air passes in circulating through a mine.

##### Translations
### Etymology 3

From Middle English doun-casten, *adoun-casten (“to cast or throw (something) downwards; to break down (something); to overcome (someone); to overturn (something)”), from down (“in a downward direction; (figurative) to destruction”), adoun (“downward”) + casten (“to throw (something), fling, hurl; to overcome (someone), defeat, overpower; [etc.]”): see etymology 1. The English word is analysable as down- (prefix meaning ‘lower direction or position’) +‎ cast (“to throw”, verb).

#### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈdaʊnkɑːst/, /-kæst/, /daʊnˈkɑːst/, /-ˈkæst/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)Audio:(file)
* (General American) IPA: /ˈdaʊnˌkæst/, /ˌdaʊnˈkæst/
* Rhymes: -ɑːst, -æst
* Hyphenation: down‧cast

#### Verb

downcast (third-person singular simple present downcasts, present participle downcasting, simple past and past participle downcast or downcasted) (transitive)
* To turn (the eyes) downwards, usually as a sign of discouragement, sadness, etc., or sometimes modesty.
* To cast or throw (something) downwards; also, to drop or lower (something).
** 1838 October, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Midnight Mass for the Dying Year”, in Voices of the Night, Cambridge, Mass.: […] John Owen, published 1839, →OCLC, stanza 12, page 30:For there shall come a mightier blast, / There shall be a darker day; / And the stars, from heaven down-cast, / Like red leaves be swept away!
* To demolish or tear down (a building, etc.).
* (figurative) To make (someone) feel despondent or discouraged; to discourage, to sadden.
    Synonym: cast down
* (computing) To cast (“change the expression of”) (a data type) from supertype to subtype.
    Antonym: upcast
* (Scotland) To reproach or upbraid (someone); also, to taunt (someone).
* (obsolete) To depose or overthrow (a leader, an institution, etc.); also (sometimes reflexive), to bring down (oneself or someone) from an exalted position; to humble.
    Synonym: cast down

##### Derived terms

* downcasting (noun)

##### Related terms

* cast down

##### Translations
### References

* 1 2 “[doun]caste” under “dǒun, adv.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
* 1 2 “adǒun, adv.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
* ↑ “casten, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
* ↑ “downcast, adj. and n.$^2$”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2023; “downcast, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
* 1 2 “downcast, n.$^1$”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “downcast, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
* ↑ “adǒun-cast, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
* ↑ “cast, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
* ↑ “downcast, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023.

### Anagrams

* cast down