How to use downhill in a sentence

40 example sentences · adverb, adjective, noun

Downhill means down a slope. Example: “Because we got to the summit of the mountain, we could only go downhill from there.”

Examples of downhill by meaning

adverbDown a slope.

Because we got to the summit of the mountain, we could only go downhill from there.
I worked my way downhill, slip sliding in the mud along a steep embankment that followed a stream until it emptied into a creek.2006, Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma, The Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 388

adverbSo as to deteriorate or get worse.

After Don made those tasteless remarks, our relationship with him went downhill.

adjectiveLocated towards or at the bottom of a slope or hill.

Moraines are found at the downhill end of a glacier.

adjectiveGoing down a slope or a hill.

This year's race is on a downhill course.
It was nearly all downhill into Shrewsbury, with two intermediate stops, and a grand sequence of long curves around which Soult nuzzled her way with a quick side-to-side action.1951 October, R. S. McNaught, “Lines of Approach”, in Railway Magazine, page 706

adjectiveEasy.

That's the hard part of the job done. From now on it's downhill all the way.

adjectiveCharacterized by a style of running with a low center of gravity.

He's a downhill runner.

More sentences with downhill

I usually run fast enough, but my speed goes downhill when I don't sleep enough.From the entry go downhill
The men's downhill race is considered by many to be the blue riband event of the Winter Olympics.From the entry blue riband
The end of the ride was a long coast downhill.From the entry down-
Normally you should be in drive, although you can select a lower gear such as 2 or 1 for certain conditions, such as prolonged downhill stretches.From the entry drive
When and why did it all start to go downhill again?2025 August 5, Steve Rose, “‘A yorkshire pudding like a dishcloth’: how did British pub food get so grim?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN. From the entry go downhill
Everything about GG has been steeply downhill since those early days.2024 January 22, Mike Easter, “32 days . . .”, in alt.comp.freeware (Usenet), archived from the original on 01 Apr 2026. From the entry gg
It goes downhill in Trespassers tho, where Dorianmance was an afterthought compared to Adoribull.2021 December 14, trashwarden, Reddit. From the entry Dorianmance
“It was sloped some, a little downhill, which helped me speedwise.2020 October 29, Richard Goldstein, “Jimmy Orr, a Favorite Target of the Colts’ Unitas, Dies at 85”, in The New York Times. From the entry touchdown
She had no control of her body as she tumbled downhill.2012, John Branch, “Snow Fall : The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek”, in New York Times. From the entry control
Julia Mancuso (10), who grew up in Olympic Valley, and Lindsey Vonn celebrate their downhill medals.2010 February 10, Craig Hill, “A sparkling achievement: Vonn, Olympic Valley’s Mancuso finish 1-2 in women’s downhill”, in The Sacramento…. From the entry Olympic Valley
It's all downhill from here, fnar, fnar, no more horizontal hokey-cokey for you, eh grandad?1994, Joseph O'Connor, The secret world of the Irish male. From the entry fnar
I drove downhill . . . toward the Mariner's Rest Motel. . .1963, Ross Macdonald, The Chill, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, page 48. From the entry keyboy
So, after two hours' running downhill, we came out in the level valley at Glashütte.a. 1931 (date written), D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “A Hay Hut among the Mountains”, in Warren Roberts, Harry T. Moore, editors, Phoenix…. From the entry dreich
"Webb thinks he's got the world by the tail for a downhill pull.1919, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 15, in A Man Four-Square. From the entry have the world by the tail
Where downhill skiers have slopes illuminated by flood lamps to boost their vertical mileage, snowshoers and cross-country skiers rely on moonshine.2007 January 28, Elaine Glusac, “It’s Night. Shall We Snorkel, Cycle or Hike?”, in New York Times. From the entry snowshoer
A powder or "sluff" avalanche starts at a single point and fans out as surface snow slides downhill.2001 Mar, Buck Tilton, “Cold Comfort”, in Boys Life, volume 91, number 3, page 18. From the entry sluff
The race events are downhill, slalom, giant slalom, Super G, and combineds, with each giving points in the same way.1985, Skiing, volume 37, number 7, page 16. From the entry combined
The other possible problem with uphill, downhill and crested roads is that bikes tend to wheelie over them.1983, Keith Code, notes and comments by Eddie Lawson, “The Road You Ride”, in A Twist of the Wrist: The Motorcycle Road Racers Handbook…. From the entry wheelie
" Let's say your stream is flowing downhill .1953, ARTnews, page 39. From the entry let's say
“Yes, sir,” said Private Barton, “it looks like trouble has got a tail-holt on us with a downhill drag.1941 November 16, Harold Martin, “Dreams and Dust”, in The Atlanta Constitution, page 9. From the entry Cooter Brown
The sloping topography of the site also allows regenerative braking to charge the batteries as the locomotives run downhill towards the exchange sidings.2023 December 27, Ben Jones, “Inside Sellafield... by rail”, in RAIL, number 999, page 22. From the entry dynamic brake
It was all downhill from there.2011 October 11, Ted Stoltz, Universal Serendipity - Paperback, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 44. From the entry saketini
What is there to say about a movie that begins with a baby Shrek vomiting on a be-toga-ed holy man, and goes downhill from there?2008 June 1, Noel Murray, “‘Semi-Pro’ semi-funny, but it beats ‘Spartans’”, in Los Angeles Times, page E10. From the entry be-togaed
From out of a long downhill run, with the Ranger cranked up to the red line, we flattened out, some twenty feet above the runway.2003, Lou Fulgaro, The R46 and Little Louie, page 280. From the entry hummer
The mind likes facing downhill in the direction of travel better than it likes facing uphill while the body is traveling downhill.2002, Cindy Kleh, “Getting from Here to There (or Skating)”, in Snowboarding Skills: The Back-to-basics Essentials for All Levels (A…. From the entry heel turn
Don't you think the world has gone steadily downhill ever since parents stopped naming their children Lucy and Dorothy and started naming them Samantha?1990, Russell Baker, There's a Country in My Cellar, Morrow, →ISBN, page 418. From the entry Dorothy
From then on it's downhill to the California coastal town of Carpinteria, a few miles south of President Reagan's summer White House.1985, Gordon Burgett, Query letters, cover letters: how they sell your writing, page 182. From the entry badden
What could have been done by such a machine downhill can only be conjectured, for the maximum speed was restricted rigidly to 80 m.p.h.1952 December, 'Mercury', “Modern French Locomotive Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 804. From the entry conjecture
By the time I reacted, this particular rangale, having evaded death by a mere hair's breadth, was disappearing downhill on the other side of the road.2026, Sandra Jackson-Opoku, Savvy Summers and the Po'boy Perils: A Mystery, St. Martin's Publishing Group. From the entry rangale
After the Maidan some of them also went downhill to epic trash, started writing about Ukrofascism and palling around with fighters in Donetsk, like Vitaly Leybin of Russki Reporter.2018 December 22, Otar Dovzhenko, “Russian Liberal Media? No, Thank You”, in Detector Media, archived from the original on 26 Jul 2024. From the entry Ukrofascism
He's stopped making paintings, giving them away or taking them out of their frames and dragging them downhill to poubelle, stacking the little canvases against the large green container.2013 April, Thomas Fuller, “Robaire Walks Like a Surrealist, Begins to Go Crazy”, in Monsieur Ambivalence: A Post Literate Fable, San…. From the entry poubelle
'That Margarine is a funksome one.' And, without further ado, the great hulk of a troll swung Neville on to his shoulders and started galumphing off downhill.2012, Steven Butler, Wrong Pong: Troll's Treasure. From the entry funksome

Meaning of downhill

adverb Down a slope.
adverb So as to deteriorate or get worse.
adjective Located towards or at the bottom of a slope or hill.

Full definition of downhill

Questions about downhill in a sentence

How do you use downhill in a sentence?: Downhill is used as an adverb, adjective and noun. For example: “Because we got to the summit of the mountain, we could only go downhill from there.”
What is a short sentence with downhill?: “He's a downhill runner.”
What does downhill mean?: Downhill means down a slope.

Adapted from Wiktionary: downhill (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use downhill in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/downhill. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.