Word: downstrike Part of Speech: noun Etymology: From down + strike. 1. A bolt of lightning that touches ground. Example: Seventeen hundred downstrikes of lightning later, destruction reigns over southwest Oregon. Example: Lightning downstrikes became visible as it crossed Beekman Ridge south of Butte Falls. 2. A (usually unintended) branch of current that arcs downward to ground. Example: Besides forming new cores, arcs may also form branches, and "downstrikes" are liable to be particularly troublesome. Example: When a downstrike is established, the longer arc in parallel dies away rapidly and the process appears on oscillograms as a sudden reduction in arc voltage. 3. A blow by a hand or weapon that occurs with a downward striking motion. Example: Attacker executes a downstrike. Defender performs a two-hand catch, blocks, rotates through and performs an elbow-break with accompanying shoulder dislocation. Example: Its blades gleam with stolen light; the long sword slips up to Jodan to block their downstrike. 4. A downward plucking motion on a stringed instrument. Example: How the guitarist chooses to create the differences between the accented and unaccented notes has usually been left up to the player, although it is usual for players to use a downstrike (apoyando) for an accented tone and an upstroke (tirando) for an unaccented tone. 5. A downstroke; a downward movement that terminates in striking something. Example: It is sort of like paying a carpenter for the downstrike of his hammer and saying the upstroke is on his on time. Example: On the subject of environments, our anatomically contoured houndstooth design provides exceptional traction on all terrains and in all weather conditions. What's more, the studs have a unique flex action: they automatically release any turf they may have picked up on downstrike. 6. A type of manual typewriter that causes the letters to print on the downstroke of the keys and retract as the key rises. Example: These machines had straight-line keyboards and a semicircular downstrike typebasket that made for easy visibility by the typist. Example: Oak tables displayed platoons of typewriters: downstrike typewriters, upstrike typewriters, vintage World War I typewriters, turn-of-the-century typewriters—a 1901 Armstrong, a Densmore 1, a brass 1881 Hamilton Automatic, even an 1877 Sholes & Glidden in its case --each perfect in its kind, primed and polished so the metal shone. 7. A variety of various devices that operates primarily by a downward striking action. Example: My invention relates to pianofortes of the general character embodied in my United States Letters Patent No. 2,377,582, issued June 5, 1945, and wherein is disclosed and claimed a horizontal, downstrike hammer action particularly adapted, although not necessarily, for use in a lightweight, portable piano. Example: Sizes now available in vertical downstrike balers are: 72 inches, 60 inches and 36 inches. 8. A line that is drawn with a downward stroke. Example: I have marked the accented syllable by the Downstrike, leaving the unaccented ones to the Upstrike Example: These figures are rendered as usual in Arabic letters and, as is well known, these are especially apt to confound the figures for 10 and 50 by a wrong (or lacking) punctuation...and those for 3 and 8 (8 being written as ح and 3 by the same letter but with an incomplete downstrike م).