down

Adverb

down (not generally comparable, comparative further down or farther down, superlative furthest down or farthest down)

1. (comparable, not comparable, usually) From a higher position to a lower one; downwards.
   • The cat jumped down from the table.
   • She was so mad she wouldn't speak to me for quite a spell, but at last I coaxed her into going up to Miss Emmeline's room and fetching down a tintype of the missing Deacon man.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VI, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
2. (not comparable, usually) To or towards what is considered the bottom of something, irrespective of whether this is presently physically lower.
   • Go down to the bottom of the page.
   • As I lay on my back, a pain shot down from my neck to my waist.
3. (comparable, not comparable, usually) At a lower or further place or position along a set path.
   • His place is farther down the road.
   • The company was well down the path to bankruptcy.
4. (not comparable, usually) To the south (as south is at the bottom of typical maps).
   • I went down to Miami for a conference.
5. (not comparable, usually) Away from the city (regardless of direction).
   • He went down to Cavan.
   • down on the farm
6. (not comparable, usually) At or towards any place that is visualised as 'down' by virtue of local features or local convention, or arbitrarily, irrespective of direction or elevation change.
   • She lives down by the park.
7. (not comparable, usually) Forward, straight ahead.
   • At the first intersection turn left and walk down, then turn right.
8. (not comparable, usually) In the direction leading away from the principal terminus, away from milepost zero.
9. (UK, dated, not comparable, usually) Away from Oxford or Cambridge.
   • He's gone back down to Newcastle for Christmas.
10. (not comparable, usually) To a subordinate or less prestigious position or rank.
    • Smith was sent down to the minors to work on his batting.
    • After the incident, Kelly went down to Second Lieutenant.
11. (not comparable, usually) Towards the opponent's side (in ball-sports).
    • The charity match, played Sunday afternoon at Cirencester Park Polo Club in Gloucestershire, reached a dramatic climax when Prince Harry tore down the pitch but failed to score what was described as an “open goal”.2015 May 25, “Frustrated Prince Harry howls as he misses open goal”, in Daily Telegraph
    • By moving further down the pitch, the batsman lengthens the distance between the ball and the stumps.2005 September, “LBW explained”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)
12. (not comparable, usually) So as to lessen quantity, level or intensity.
    • You need to tone down the rhetoric.
    • Please turn the music down!

Preposition

down

1. From the higher end to the lower of.
   • The ball rolled down the hill.
   • We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine. We passed on the way the van of the guests from Asquith.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC
2. From north to south of.
   • We sailed down the eastern seaboard.
3. Towards the mouth of (a river); in the direction of flow of.
   • In this game we float sticks down the river.
4. From one end to another of (in any direction); along.
   • The bus went down the street.
   • They walked down the beach holding hands.
5. (Ireland, UK) At (a given place that is seen as removed from one's present location or other point of reference).
   • I'll see you later down the pub.
6. (Ireland, UK) To (a given place that is seen as removed from one's present location or other point of reference).
   • I'm going down the shops.

Adjective

down (comparative more down, superlative most down)

1. (predicative) Facing downwards.
   • Turn the cloth over so that the patterned side is down.
   • You win a dollar if the down side of the card is different to the up side; otherwise, you lose a dollar.1993, Finite Mathematics: Overrun Edition, Calvert, page 251
2. (predicative) At a lower level than before.
   • The stock market is down.
   • Prices are down.

   Antonyms:

   up

3. (informal, predicative) Sad, unhappy, depressed, feeling low.
   • Mary seems very down since she split up with her boyfriend.
   • Been down so long it seems like up to me

   Synonyms:

   miserable, sorrowful, atrabiliary, atrabilious, blitheless, dispirited, blue, bummed out, chapfallen, cheerless

   Antonyms:

   up

4. (predicative) Sick or ill.
   • He is down with the flu.
5. (not comparable, predicative, slang) Wounded and unable to move normally, or killed.
   • We have an officer down outside the suspect's house.
   • There are three soldiers down and one walking wounded.
6. (predicative) Stranded in a recumbent position; unable to stand.
   • a down cow

   Synonyms:

   downer

7. (not comparable, predicative, slang) Mechanically failed, collided, shot down, or otherwise suddenly unable to fly.
   • We have a chopper down near the river.
8. (not comparable, predicative) Inoperable; out of order; out of service.
   • The system is down.

   Antonyms:

   up

9. (predicative, slang) In prison.
   • 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.1988 February 7, Crystal Dawn Boyd, “Let's Start Caring About Ourselves”, in Gay Community News, volume 15, number 29, page 5
10. (predicative) Having a lower score than an opponent.
    • They are down by 3–0 with just 5 minutes to play.
    • He was down by a bishop and a pawn after 15 moves.

    Antonyms:

    up

11. (colloquial, predicative, following the noun modified) Out.
    • Two down and one to go in the bottom of the ninth.
12. (colloquial, predicative) Negative about; hostile to.
    • She's been down on clams since a bad case of food poisoning; she's lost her appetite for them.
    • 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.1983 August 13, Dennis Stinson, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 5, page 22

Verb (1)

down (third-person singular simple present downs, present participle downing, simple past and past participle downed)

1. (predicative, transitive) To knock (someone or something) down; to cause to come down; to fell.
   • The storm downed several old trees along the highway.
   • A single rifle shot downed the mighty beast.
   1. (predicative, transitive) Specifically, to cause (something in the air) to fall to the ground; to bring down (with a missile etc.).
      • The helicopter was downed by a surface-to-air missile.
2. (predicative, transitive) To lower; to put (something) down.
   • The bell rang for lunch, and the workers downed their tools.
3. (figuratively, predicative, transitive) To defeat; to overpower.
   • To down proud hearts that would not willing die.1725, Philip Sidney, The works of the Honourable Sir Philip Sidney, kt., in prose and verse, London: W. Innys, →OCLC, page 156
4. (colloquial, predicative, transitive) To disparage; to put down.
   • ‘I remember how you downed Beauclerk and Hamilton, the Wits, once at our House, – when they talked of Ghosts.’1779, Frances Burney, Journals & Letters, Penguin, published 2001, page 141
   • Now you have a social worker who downs women who are gay! […] I have met a woman and fell in love with her and I still get humiliated and discriminated against because he (social worker) is against homosexuality and is causing a lot of confusion here.1986 April 12, anonymous author, “One Day I'll Write a Book on This”, in Gay Community News, page 3
5. (intransitive, obsolete, predicative, rare) To go or come down; to descend.
   • ...that is, that the trade of the world is too little for us two, therefore one must down.1933, Arthur Bryant, quoting Samuel Pepys (1664, February 2nd), Samuel Pepys: The Man in the Making, New York: Macmillan, →OCLC, page 215
6. (colloquial, predicative, transitive) To drink or swallow, especially without stopping before the vessel containing the liquid is empty.
   • He downed an ale and ordered another.
   • After watching people downing drink on the train, I am in need of slaking my own thirst, so I pop into the station's Centurion Bar.2022 November 30, Paul Bigland, “Destination Oban: a Sunday in Scotland”, in RAIL, number 971, page 75
7. (Canadian, predicative, transitive) To render (the ball) dead, typically by touching the ground while in possession.
   • He downed it at the seven-yard line.
8. (predicative, transitive) To sink (a ball) into a hole or pocket.
   • He downed two balls on the break.

Noun (1)

down (plural downs)

1. (predicative) A negative aspect; a downer, a downside.
   • I love almost everything about my job. The only down is that I can't take Saturdays off.
2. (dated, predicative) A grudge (on someone).
   • She had a down on me. I don't know what for, I'm sure; because I never said a word.1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York, published 2007, page 10
3. (predicative) A downer, depressant.
   • I am on drugs that I don't need to be on. They feel if I'm on a lot of downs, then I won't complain about my prison life1984 December 29, Gena Spero, “Innocent Lesbian In Prison”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 25, page 4
4. (predicative) An act of swallowing an entire drink at once.
5. (predicative) A single play, from the time the ball is snapped (the start) to the time the whistle is blown (the end) when the ball is down, or is downed.
   • I bet after the third down, the kicker will replace the quarterback on the field.
6. (predicative, crosswording) A clue whose solution runs vertically in the grid.
   • I haven't solved 12 or 13 across, but I've got most of the downs.
7. (predicative) The shift or period of time during which a dealer manages a given table before rotating to the next table at a casino or cardroom, which is often 30 minutes.
8. (predicative) A downstairs room of a two-story house.
   • She lives in a two-up two-down.
9. (predicative) Down payment.
10. (predicative) The lightest quark with a charge number of −¹⁄₃.

Noun (2)

down (countable and uncountable, plural downs)

1. (Australia, Southern-England, also, especially, often, plural) A hill; in England, especially a chalk hill.
   • We went for a walk over the downs.
   • The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England.
2. (plural-normally, predicative) A field, especially one used for horse racing.
3. (UK, in plural, predicative) A tract of poor, sandy, undulating or hilly land near the sea, covered with fine turf which serves chiefly for the grazing of sheep.
   • Seven thousand broad-taild Sheepe gras'd on his Downes;1636, George Sandys, “A Paraphrase Vpon Iob”, in Early English Books

Noun (3)

down (countable and uncountable, plural downs)

1. (predicative) Soft, fluffy immature feathers which grow on young birds. Used as insulating material in duvets, sleeping bags and jackets.
2. (predicative) The pubescence of plants; the hairy crown or envelope of the seeds of certain plants, such as the thistle.
   • Down or Cotton-Thiſtle. This hath many large Leaves lying on the Ground, ſomewhat cut in, and as it were crumpled on the Edges, of a green Colour on the upper ſide, but covered with long hairy Wool or Cottony Down, ſet with moſt ſharp and cruel pricks1718, Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician Enlarged, London: W. Churchill, →OCLC, page 120
   • No candle should light it, neither should any flower adorn it, save for several dried stalks of old and withered thistles, their heads pale with silken down, held in a common glass jar.1998, Valerie Worth, The Crone's Book of Charms and Spells, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications, →ISBN, page 152
3. (predicative) The soft hair of the face when beginning to appear.
   • But love him as he was, when youthful Grace,
     And the firſt Down began to ſhade his face1717, John Dryden, The Dramatick Works of John Dryden, Esq., volume the fourth, London: Jacob Tonson, →OCLC, page 136
   • The servant to whom he put this question was a young fellow with chubby cheeks, small, dull eyes, and a round chin, covered with a colorless down.1867, Ivan Sergheïevitch Turgenef [i.e., Ivan Turgenev], chapter I, in Eugene Schuyler, transl., Fathers and Sons […], New York, N.Y.: Leypoldt and Holt, →OCLC, page 1
4. (predicative) That which is made of down, as a bed or pillow; that which affords ease and repose, like a bed of down.
   • Thou boſom Softneſs! Down of all my Cares!
     I cou'd recline my thoughts upon this Breaſt
     To a forgetfulneſs of all my Griefs,
     And yet be happy: but it wonnot be.1696, Tho[mas] Southerne, Oroonoko: A Tragedy […], London: […] H[enry] Playford […]; B[enjamin] Tooke […]; [a]nd S. Buckley […], →OCLC, act V, scene the last [iv], pages 76–77
   • When in the down I sink my head,
     Sleep, Death's twin brother, times my breath.1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “(please specify |part=Prologue or Epilogue, or |canto=I to CXXIX)”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC

Verb (2)

down (third-person singular simple present downs, present participle downing, simple past and past participle downed)

1. (predicative, transitive) To cover, ornament, line, or stuff with down.
   • What pain to quit the world, just made their own,
     Their nest so deeply downed, and built so high !1742, Edward Young, The Complaint: or, Night-thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality, London: R. Dodsley, →OCLC, page 264

Proper noun capitalized: Down

IPA/daʊn/

Down

1. One of the six traditional counties of Northern Ireland, usually known as County Down.
2. A surname.