down
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /daʊn/
ipa: /dʌʊn/
ipa: [dəu̯n]
ipa: /duːn/
rhymes: -aʊn
Forms: form: more down
form: most down
form: doon
Etymology: From Middle English doun, doune, from Old English dūne (“down”), aphetic form of adūne (“down, downward”), from earlier ofdūne (“down”, literally “off the hill”), from of (“of, off of”) + dūn (“hill, mount, dune, down”). More at Etymology 2 below. For the development from directional phrases to prepositions, compare Middle Low German dāle (“down, downwards”, literally “(in/to the) dale/valley”), whence German Low German dal (“down”). Compare also Saterland Frisian deel (“down”, literally “to/into the dale”).
Senses: examples: text: Turn the cloth over so that the patterned side is down.
text: You win a dollar if the down side of the card is different to the up side; otherwise, you lose a dollar.
ref: 1993, Finite Mathematics: Overrun Edition, Calvert, page 251:
text: Define the event F as the event that the down face of the die is 1 or 4.
ref: 2004, Robert M. Gray, Lee D. Davisson, An Introduction to Statistical Signal Processing, page 170:
text: Each time the 10 cards are reshuffled, your task is to predict the letter on the down side of the top card.
ref: 2016, Keith E. Stanovich, Richard F. West, Maggie E. Toplak, The Rationality Quotient: Toward a Test of Rational Thinking, page 332:
glosses: Facing downwards.
examples: text: The stock market is down.
text: Prices are down.
antonyms: up
glosses: At a lower level than before.
examples: text: Mary seems very down since she split up with her boyfriend.
text: Been down so long it seems like up to me
text: We get down, down, down / We feel sorry for ourselves / We get down, down, down / We all need somebody's help
ref: 2011, Rachel Platten, “Overwhelmed”, in Be Here:
text: You say you opened up a bicycle wash and the first six customers drowned [...] Is that what’s got you down, pussy cat?
ref: 2014 March 30, William Yardley, quoting Eddie Lawrence, “Eddie Lawrence Dies at 95; Comedy's ‘Old Philosopher’”, in New York Times, Arts:
synonyms: word: miserable
word: sorrowful
word: atrabiliary
word: atrabilious
word: blitheless
word: dispirited
word: blue
word: bummed out
word: chapfallen
word: cheerless
word: chopfallen
word: crestfallen
word: cut up
word: damp
word: dejected
word: depressed
word: despondent
word: disgruntled
word: disconsolate
word: disheartened
word: dismal
word: doleful
word: dolesome
word: down
word: down in the dumps
word: down in the mouth
word: downcast
word: downhearted
word: downsome
word: dull
word: elegiac
word: elegious
word: forlorn
word: gloomy
word: glum
word: grief-stricken
word: grieving
word: heavy-hearted
word: heartsore
word: heartsick
word: inconsolable
word: infelicitous
word: jawfallen
word: joyless
word: lachrymose
word: lamentful
word: low
word: low-spirited
word: lugubrious
word: lumpish
word: melancholic
word: melancholy
word: miserable
word: moody
word: mopey
word: morose
word: mournful
word: passionate
word: plaintive
word: querulous
word: sad
word: saddened
word: saturnine
word: shattered
word: solemn
word: sombre
word: sorrowful
word: sorrow-ridden
word: sorrowsome
word: spiritless
word: sullen
word: threnetic
word: threnetical
word: triste
word: tristful
word: uncheerful
word: uncheery
word: unconsolable
word: unhappy
word: unlively
word: wistful
word: woe
word: woebegone
word: woeful
word: wretched
antonyms: up
glosses: Sad, unhappy, depressed, feeling low.
examples: text: He is down with the flu.
glosses: Sick, wounded, or damaged:
Sick or ill.
raw_tags: normally in the combination 'down with'
examples: text: We have an officer down outside the suspect's house.
text: There are three soldiers down and one walking wounded.
topics: government
law-enforcement
military
politics
war
glosses: Sick, wounded, or damaged:
Wounded and unable to move normally, or killed.
raw_tags: of a person
examples: text: a down cow
topics: biology
medicine
natural-sciences
pathology
sciences
veterinary
zoology
glosses: Sick, wounded, or damaged:
Stranded in a recumbent position; unable to stand.
synonyms: word: downer
english: of "down cow"
translation: of "down cow"
raw_tags: of a cow
examples: text: We have a chopper down near the river.
topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
government
military
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
politics
war
glosses: Sick, wounded, or damaged:
Mechanically failed, collided, shot down, or otherwise suddenly unable to fly.
raw_tags: of an aircraft
examples: text: The system is down.
glosses: Sick, wounded, or damaged:
Inoperable; out of order; out of service.
antonyms: up
examples: text: I'm a TS who has been down for over 5 years and will be going up for parole in the next 1 to 3 years.
ref: 1988 February 7, Crystal Dawn Boyd, “Let's Start Caring About Ourselves”, in Gay Community News, volume 15, number 29, page 5:
glosses: In prison.
examples: text: They are down by 3–0 with just 5 minutes to play.
text: He was down by a bishop and a pawn after 15 moves.
text: At 5–1 down, she produced a great comeback to win the set on a tiebreak.
antonyms: up
glosses: Having a lower score than an opponent.
examples: text: Two down and one to go in the bottom of the ninth.
topics: ball-games
baseball
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
qualifier: following the noun modified
glosses: Out.
examples: text: She's been down on clams since a bad case of food poisoning; she's lost her appetite for them.
text: The prisoners here are down on gays (they bring the outside in here with them when they come in). I sometimes think they hate us because they fear to be us.
ref: 1983 August 13, Dennis Stinson, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 5, page 22:
glosses: Negative about; hostile to.
raw_tags: with "on"
examples: text: He's chill enough; he'd probably be totally down with it.
text: Asker: Are you down to hang out at the mall? / Answerer: Yeah, as long as you're down with helping me pick a phone.
text: Asker: You down? Yes or no? / Answerer: You know I'm down for whatever.
text: Then again, with your name being Juanita Perez, I wasn't sure if you were more down with the Latinos or something.
ref: 2001, Omar Tyree, For the Love of Money, page 121:
text: He said Lunceford's band was smoother and had more musical variety and great show-band novelties, but that there was something about the way we did our things that made us sound more down with it.
ref: 2002, Count Basie, Albert Murray, Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography Of Count Basie, page 194:
text: And we could then feel more "down" with more unconscious guilt.
ref: 2007, David W. Shave, Small Talk--big Cure!: Talking Your Way to a Better Life, page 58:
text: I thought, Oh, Sarah must be one of these super gentle, herbal-tea-drinking, crystal-having kind of people. And she was just super down. She belched like a sailor.
ref: 2019 September 30, Jessica Hopper, Sasha Geffen, Jenn Pelly, “Building a Mystery: An Oral History of Lilith Fair”, in Vanity Fair:
glosses: Comfortable [with]; accepting [of]; okay [with].
examples: text: What you mean, 'No'? Man, I thought you was down.
text: my homies is down so don't arouse my anger
ref: 1994, “Gangsta's Paradise”, Coolio (lyrics):
text: Nigga you ain't down. You heard what Nate said. If you ain't down for the dead homie you sure ain't down for us.
ref: 1995, Colors - Volume 4, page 28:
text: Cause you're a whiteboy, you know, an' if you get locked up you gotta be down for the Aryans and the Surenos, you know? You gotta be down.
ref: 2009, Mike Flax, L.A. Unified, page 129:
qualifier: African-American Vernacular
glosses: Accepted, respected, or loyally participating in the (thug) community.
examples: text: Two down and three to go.
text: Ten minutes down and nothing's happened yet.
glosses: Finished (of a task); defeated or dealt with (of an opponent or obstacle); elapsed (of time). Often coupled with to go (remaining).
examples: text: It's two weeks until opening night and our lines are still not down yet.
text: I stay with Chloe the longest. When she's not hanging out at the beach parties, she lives in a Japanese garden complete with an arched bridge spanning a pond filled with koi of varying sizes and shapes. Reeds shoot out of the water, rustling when the fish swim through them, and river-washed stones are sprinkled in a bed of sand. Chloe has this whole new Japanese thing down.
ref: 2013, P.J. Hoover, Solstice, →ISBN, page 355:
glosses: Thoroughly practiced, learned or memorised; mastered. (Compare down pat.)
examples: text: This, he muſt give me leave to tell him, is an abſolute, right down—falſehood.
ref: 1764, Jonathan Mayhew, A Defence of the Observations on the Charter and Conduct of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, London: W. Nicoll, →OCLC, page 84:
glosses: Downright; absolute; positive.
examples: text: Left again at 1.05 p.m., and for two miles it was over rolling county with easy grades, but a good deal of down timber.
ref: 1897, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Report of the Commissioner ..., page 72:
text: The mere fact that there are quantities of trees near by with "loads” of down wood, does not signify that it is desirable camp fuel.
ref: 1920, Boys and Girls Bookshelf: A Practical Plan of Character Building ..., page 309:
text: Will you please let me get two loads of down wood.
ref: 1935 (printed in 2009), Powell, Shenandoah Letters, 54
text: The average weight of down logs in seven old-growth stands, from 250 to over 900 years old, was 53 tons per acre (118 tonnes/ha); the range was 38 to 70 tons per acre (85 to 156 tonnes/ha). The largest accumulation of down wood recorded for a stand thus far is in the Carbon River Valley […]
ref: 1981, Ecological Characteristics of Old-growth Douglas-fir Forests, page 31:
qualifier: limb; etc; limb; etc
glosses: Fallen or felled.
raw_tags: of a tree
examples: text: The down train leaves at 10:05.
topics: rail-transport
railways
transport
antonyms: up
glosses: Travelling in the direction leading away from the principal terminus, away from milepost zero.
raw_tags: of a train
Derived terms: down bad
down but not out
downtime