downright
Language: English
Part of speech: adv
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈdaʊnɹaɪt/
note: as a postqualifier or at the end of a clause
ipa: /ˌdaʊnˈɹaɪt/
ipa: /ˈdaʊnˌɹaɪt/
rhymes: (as a postqualifier or at the end of a clause) -aɪt
Etymology: The adverb is derived from Middle English dounright, dounriȝt (“right down, straight down; face down; vertically; used for emphasis: outright, downright”), and then either:
* possibly an aphetic form of adounright (“straight down; directly, immediately (?)”), from adoun (“downward”, adverb) (from Old English adūn, adūne (“down, downward”, adverb), ultimately from dūn (“hill, mountain”), from Proto-West Germanic *dūnā, *dūnu (“hill; sand dune”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- (“haze, mist; smoke”)) + right (“direct; straight; etc.”, adjective) (from Old English riht (“straight; etc.”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to straighten”)); or
* from doun (“down, downward; etc.”, adverb) (from Old English dūne (“down”), ultimately from dūn (“hill, mountain”): see above) + right.
By surface analysis, down (adverb) + right (adjective).
The adjective and noun are derived from the adverb. Noun sense 1 (“low grade of wool”) may be from the obsolete adjective sense 2.2 (“in its most basic form; ordinary”).
Senses: examples: text: He wasn’t just cool to me, he was downright rude.
text: VVe vvere deſcried, theyle mock vs novv dounright.
ref: c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby, published 1598, →OCLC; republished as Shakspere’s Loves Labours Lost (Shakspere-Quarto Facsimiles; no. 5), London: W[illiam] Griggs, […], [1880], →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii], signature H3, recto, line 388:
text: VVhat then are thoſe monſtrous Extravagancies in your deportment to all perſons of vvhat quality ſoever? […] VVhich bold and impudent cuſtome, unleſs you vvere dovvn-right mad, you could never have taken up of your ſelves. VVherefore certainly ſome very vvaggiſh Maſter of the Ceremonies has taught you this ill manners, like him that inſtructed the Sheriff to keep on his Hat vvhen he accoſted the King.
ref: 1664, H[enry] More, “[The Apology of Dr. Henry More, […].] Chapter X.”, in Synopsis Prophetica; or, The Second Part of the Modest Enquiry into the Mystery of Iniquity: […], London: […] James Flesher, for William Morden […], →OCLC, page 562:
text: Familiar! Madam, in Troth he's dovvn-right rude.
ref: 1716 March 21 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], The Drummer; or, The Haunted House. A Comedy. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], published 1716 (indicated as 1715), →OCLC, Act I, page 8:
text: If my friend had not given me the hint, damn me if I ſhou'd not think her dovvn right angry.
ref: 1787 February 10 (first performance), [Elizabeth] Inchbald, Such Things Are; […], London: […] G[eorge] G[eorge] J[ohn] and J. Robinson, […], published 1788, →OCLC, Act IV, scene i, page 47:
text: The pure Drummond product, the four-cylinder 4-6-0 as built for the London & South Western, was a less successful design, and some of the specimens were downright bad.
ref: 1955 January, John W. Grant, “The Scottish Contribution”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 49:
synonyms: word: absolutely
word: entirely
word: outright
word: positively
word: right-down
word: thoroughly
word: utterly
word: absolutely
word: all-out
word: all the way
word: altogether
word: at large
word: at length
word: cap-a-pie
word: categorically
word: completely
word: detailly
word: downright
word: entirely
word: exhaustively
word: finally
word: first and last
word: flat-out
word: flat out
word: from aardvark to zymurgy
word: from A to Z
word: from head to toe
word: from soup to nuts
word: from stem to stern
word: from the rooter to the tooter
word: from top to bottom
word: from top to toe
word: fully
word: handsomely
word: heartily
word: head to foot
word: head to tail
word: head to toe
word: hook
word: line
word: and sinker
word: in detail
word: in full
word: lock
word: stock
word: and barrel
word: one hundred percent
word: out-and-out
word: out and out
word: outright
word: particularly
word: perfectly
word: plumb
word: purely
word: quite
word: right
word: root and branch
word: soundly
word: soup-to-nuts
word: straight up
word: through and through
word: top to tail
word: top to toe
word: totally
word: totes
word: to the bone
word: to the core
word: to the full
word: utterly
word: well and truly
word: whole
word: whole cloth
word: wholly
glosses: Completely, wholly.
examples: text: Ros[alind]. Not true in loue? / Cel[ia]. Yes, vvhen he is in, but I thinke he is not in. / Ros. You haue heard him ſvveare dovvnright he vvas.
ref: c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv], page 199, column 1:
text: VVell, 'tis not my Buſineſs to quarrel vvith her dovvn[-]right.
ref: 1741, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XXXI”, in Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded. […], 3rd edition, volume I, London: […] C[harles] Rivington, […]; and J. Osborn, […], →OCLC, page 146:
text: Mr. Halkett, […] told him downright that he had assisted at many weddings, but he had never the pleasure of supporting such a thorough "carry-me-out-and-bury-me-decently" looking article before.
ref: 1865, Florence Marryat, “The Happy Day”, in “Too Good for Him.” […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, pages 78–79:
synonyms: bluntly
outright
glosses: Of acts or speech: directly and unambiguously; clearly, plainly.
examples: text: Cedentes capilli, heares [hairs] hanging down ryght.
ref: 1542, Thomas Eliot [i.e., Thomas Elyot], “Cedentes capilli”, in Bibliotheca Eliotæ: Eliotis Librarie, London: Thomas Berthelet, […], published 1545, →OCLC, signature H.ii., recto, column 1:
text: [Y]et there bee other difficulties that impeach their vvorke: for othervvhiles they meet vvith rocks of flint and rags, as vvell in undermining forvvard, as in ſinking pits dovvne right; vvhich they are driven to pierce and cleave through vvith fire and vinegre.
ref: 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XXXIII.] The Manner of Finding Gold Naturally in the Mine. When were Knowne the First Statues of Gold. The Medicinable Vertues and Properties of Gold.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 2nd tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 467:
text: In removing and tranſplanting young Oakes you muſt be ſure not to cut off or vvound that part of the root, vvhich deſcends dovvn-right (vvhich in ſome Countreys they call the tap-root) but dig it up to the bottome, and prepare your hole deep enough to ſet it: […]
ref: 1674, John Ray, “The Manner of Working the Iron at the Forge or Hammer”, in A Collection of English Words. Not Generally Used, with Their Significations and Original, […], London: […] H. Bruges for Tho[mas] Burrell […], →OCLC, page 129:
text: He […] climb'd a ſtranded Lighter's height, / Shot to the black abyſs, and plung'd dovvn-right.
ref: 1728, [Alexander Pope], “Book the Second”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin; London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC, page 29, lines 263–264:
text: Than sousit dounright like the stern-shot light, / Fra the liftis blue casement driven.
ref: [1813 January 30, James Hogg, “Night the First. The Witch of Fife. The Eighth Bard’s Song.”, in The Queen’s Wake: A Legendary Poem, Edinburgh: George Goldie, […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 72:
text: The three mates quailed before his strong, sustained, and mystic aspect. Stubb and Flask looked sideways from him; the honest eye of Starbuck fell downright.
ref: 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Quarter-deck”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 184:
glosses: Straight down; perpendicularly.
examples: text: This is the ſoul that I vvith preſſer quill / Muſt novv purſue and fall upon dovvn-right, […]
ref: 1642, H[enry] M[ore], “ΨΥΧΑΘΑΝΑΣΙΑ [Psychathanasia] Platonica: Or A Platonicall Poem of the Immortality of Souls, Especially Mans Soul”, in ΨΥΧΩΔΙΑ [Psychōdia] Platonica: Or A Platonicall Song of the Soul, […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Roger Daniel, printer to the Universitie, →OCLC, book 1, canto 1, stanza 3, page 34:
text: The reading of this Paper put Mrs. Bull in ſuch a Paſſion, that ſhe fell dovvnright into a Fit, and they vvere forc’d to give her a good quantity of the Spirit of Hartſhorn before ſhe recover’d.
ref: 1712, Humphry Polesworth [pseudonym; John Arbuthnot], “An Account of the Conference between Mrs. Bull and Don Diego Dismallo”, in John Bull in His Senses: Being the Second Part of Law is a Bottomless-Pit. […], Edinburgh: […] James Watson, […], →OCLC, page 18:
text: And, dear Lady G. he dovvnright kiſſed me—My lip; and not my cheek—and in ſo fervent a vvay—I tell you every-thing, my Charlotte—I could have been angry—had I knovvn hovv, from ſurprize.
ref: 1753 (indicated as 1754), [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XXXIV. Miss Byron. In Continuation.”, in The History of Sir Charles Grandison. […], volume V, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by C. Hitch and L. Hawes, […], →OCLC, page 230:
synonyms: outright
straight
straight away
glosses: Immediately at that place and time; without delay; altogether, at once, then and there.
Derived terms: downrightly
downrightness