downward
Language: English
Part of speech: adv
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈdaʊnwɚd/
ipa: /ˈdaʊnwəd/
Etymology: From down + -ward.
Senses: examples: text: His position in society moved ever downward.
text: The natural disasters put downward pressure on the creditworthiness of the nation’s insurance groups.
text: [A] ring the county wears, / That downward hath succeeded in his house / From son to son, some four or five descents
ref: c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vii]:
text: They call her Daffadill: / Whoſe preſence as ſhe went along, / The prety flowers did greet, / As though their heads they downward bent, / With homage to her feete.
ref: 1606?, Michaell Drayton [i.e., Michael Drayton], “The Ninth Eglog”, in Poemes Lyrick and Pastorall. […], London: […] R. B[radock] for N[icholas] L[ing] and I[ohn] Flasket, →OCLC; republished in Poemes Lyrick and Pastorall (Publications of the Spenser Society, New Series; 4), [Manchester: […] Charles E. Simms] for the Spenser Society, 1891, →OCLC, page 94:
text: Novv you muſt bee ſure […] to carry the point or top of the Rod dovvnevvard; by vvhich meanes the ſhadovv of your ſelfe, and Rod too vvill be the leaſt offenſive to the Fiſh, for the ſight of any ſhadovv amazes the fiſh, and ſpoiles your ſport, of vvhich you muſt take a great care.
ref: 1653, Iz[aak] Wa[lton], chapter IV, in The Compleat Angler or The Contemplative Man’s Recreation. Being a Discourse of Fish and Fishing, […], London: […] T. Maxey for Rich[ard] Marriot, […], →OCLC; reprinted as The Compleat Angler (Homo Ludens; 6), Nieuwkoop, South Holland, Netherlands: Miland Publishers, 1969, →ISBN, page 109:
text: [T]heir Sight was so directed downward, that they did not readily see Objects that were above them […]
ref: 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 71:
text: Down, downward they went, and yet further down—their descent at each step seeming to outmeasure their advance.
ref: 1878 January–December, Thomas Hardy, “The Halt on the Turnpike-road”, in The Return of the Native […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], published 1878, →OCLC, book I (The Three Women), page 73:
glosses: Toward a lower level, whether in physical space, in a hierarchy, or in amount or value.
examples: text: Dagon his Name, Sea Monster, upward Man / And downward Fish […]
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 462–463:
glosses: At a lower level.
examples: text: If we turn to the New World, we find that among the American Indians, from the Eskimo of Alaska downward to Brazil and still farther south, homosexual customs have been very frequently observed.
ref: 1927, Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, volume 2:
glosses: Southward.
Synonyms: down
downwards
Derived terms: downwardly
downwardness
nondownward