Etimology
From Middle English doun, from Old English dūne, aphetic form of adūne, from ofdūne (“off the hill”). For the development from directional phrases to prepositions, compare Middle Low German dāle (“(in/to the) valley”), i.e. "down(wards)".
adverb
down (not generally comparable, comparative farther down, superlative farthest down)
(comparable) From a higher position to a lower one; downwards.
(comparable) At a lower or further place or position along a set path.
As a down payment.
On paper (or in a durable record).
To the south (as south is at the bottom of typical maps).
Away from the city (regardless of direction).
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.
(sports) Towards the opponent's side (in ball-sports).
Into a state of non-operation.
To a subordinate or less prestigious position or rank.
(rail transport) In the direction leading away from the principal terminus, away from milepost zero.
(sentence substitute, imperative) Get down.
(UK, academia, dated) Away from Oxford or Cambridge.
From a remoter or higher antiquity.
So as to lessen quantity, level or intensity.
So as to reduce size, weight or volume.
From less to greater detail.
So as to secure or compress something to the floor, ground, or other (usually horizontal) surface.
Used with verbs to indicate that the action of the verb was carried to some state of completion, permanence, or success rather than being of indefinite duration.
Forward, straight ahead.
Examples
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.
To her humiliation Jessamy found there were tears trickling down her cheeks.
Through the open front door ran Jessamy, down the steps to where Kitto was sitting at the bottom with the pram beside him.
His place is farther down the road.
The company was well down the path to bankruptcy.
It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street. He wore shepherd's plaid trousers and the swallow-tail coat of the day, with a figured muslin cravat wound about his wide-spread collar.
You can have it, no money down.
You need to write down what happened while it's still fresh in your mind.
I went down to Miami for a conference.
He went down to Cavan.
down on the farm
down country
But then my Servant who I had intended to take down with me [i.e. from London to Bedfordshire], deceiv’d me;
Coordinate term: over
She lives down by the park.
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”.
By moving further down the pitch, the batsman lengthens the distance between the ball and the stumps.
The computer has been shut down.
They closed the shop down.
Smith was sent down to the minors to work on his batting.
After the incident, Kelly went down to Second Lieutenant.
Down, boy!
He's gone back down to Newcastle for Christmas.
These traditions have been handed down over generations.
Venerable men! you have come down to us from a former generation.
You need to tone down the rhetoric.
Please turn the music down!
Trim the stick down to a length of about twelve inches.
Thanks to my strict diet, I've slimmed down to eleven stone.
Boil the mixture down to a syrupy consistency.
ſtew it gently till quite tender, then take it up and boil down the gravy in the pan to a quart
At that point I perhaps should have gone back through the interview and changed what I said — slightly re-worded it to better reflect my feelings about the two resolutions. But I did not think to do that. I was caught up in the crunch of trying to get it all ready for publication, and edit it down, not add more explanations to it.
This spreadsheet lets you drill down to daily or even hourly sales figures.
Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product , is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory. Its apparent simplicity explains why it is scrutinised down to tenths of a percentage point every month.
We need to nail down this carpet so people don't keep tripping over it.
He closed operations. / He closed down operations.
He chased answers. / He chased down answers.
At the first intersection turn left and walk down, then turn right.
Related words
antonyms
(antonym(s) of "from a higher position to a lower one"): up
(antonym(s) of "at a lower place"): up
(antonym(s) of "away from the city"): up
(antonym(s) of "into a state of non-operation"): up
(antonym(s) of "rail transport: direction leading away from the principal terminus"): up
(antonym(s) of "in crosswords"): across
(antonym(s) of "forward, straight ahead"): back; backwards; rearwards
preposition
down
From the higher end to the lower of.
From north to south of.
From one end to another of (in any direction); along.
(colloquial) At (a given place that is seen as removed from one's present location or other point of reference).
Examples
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.
We sailed down the eastern seaboard.
The bus went down the street.
They walked down the beach holding hands.
I'll see you later down the pub.
Related words
antonyms
(antonym(s) of "From the higher end to the lower"): up
adjective
down (comparative more down, superlative most down) (chiefly predicative, but see usage notes)
Facing downwards.
At a lower level than before.
(informal) Sad, unhappy, depressed, feeling low.
Sick, wounded, or damaged:
Having a lower score than an opponent.
(baseball, cricket, colloquial, following the noun modified) Out.
(colloquial, with "on") Negative about; hostile to.
(Canada, US, slang) Comfortable [with]; accepting [of]; okay [with].
(African-American Vernacular, slang) Accepted, respected, or loyally participating in the (thug) community.
Finished (of a task); defeated or dealt with (of an opponent or obstacle); elapsed (of time). Often coupled with to go (remaining).
Thoroughly practiced, learned or memorised; mastered. (Compare down pat.)
(obsolete) Downright; absolute; positive.
(of a tree, limb, etc) Fallen or felled.
(rail transport, of a train) Travelling in the direction leading away from the principal terminus, away from milepost zero.
Examples
Turn the cloth over so that the patterned side is down.
You win a dollar if the down side of the card is different than the up side; otherwise, you lose a dollar.
Define the event F as the event that the down face of the die is 1 or 4.
Each time the 10 cards are reshuffled, your task is to predict the letter on the down side of the top card.
Antonym: up
The stock market is down.
Prices are down.
Antonym: up
Mary seems very down since she split up with her boyfriend.
Been down so long it seems like up to me
We get down, down, down / We feel sorry for ourselves / We get down, down, down / We all need somebody's help
You say you opened up a bicycle wash and the first six customers drowned [...] Is that what’s got you down, pussy cat?
He is down with the flu.
We have an officer down outside the suspect's house.
There are three soldiers down and one walking wounded.
Synonym: downer
a down cow
We have a chopper down near the river.
Antonym: up
The system is down.
Antonym: up
They are down by 3–0 with just 5 minutes to play.
He was down by a bishop and a pawn after 15 moves.
At 5–1 down, she produced a great comeback to win the set on a tiebreak.
Two down and one to go in the bottom of the ninth.
The prisoners here are down on gays . I sometimes think they hate us because they fear to be us.
She's been down on clams since a bad case of food poisoning; she's lost her appetite for them.
He's chill enough; he'd probably be totally down with it.
Asker: Are you down to hang out at the mall? / Answerer: Yeah, as long as you're down with helping me pick a phone.
Asker: You down? Yes or no? / Answerer: You know I'm down for whatever.
Then again, with your name being Juanita Perez, I wasn't sure if you were more down with the Latinos or something.
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.
And we could then feel more "down" with more unconscious guilt.
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.
What you mean, 'No'? Man, I thought you was down.
my homies is down so don't arouse my anger
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.
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.
Two down and three to go.
Ten minutes down and nothing's happened yet.
It's two weeks until opening night and our lines are still not down yet.
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.
This, he muſt give me leave to tell him, is an abſolute, right down—falſehood.
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.
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.
Will you please let me get two loads of down wood.
The average weight of down logs in seven old-growth stands, from 250 to over 900 years old, was 53 tons per acre ; the range was 38 to 70 tons per acre . The largest accumulation of down wood recorded for a stand thus far is in the Carbon River Valley […]
Antonym: up
The down train leaves at 10:05.
verb
down (third-person singular simple present downs, present participle downing, simple past and past participle downed)
(transitive) To knock (someone or something) down; to cause to come down; to fell. [from 16th c.]
(transitive) To lower; to put (something) down. [from 16th c.]
(transitive, figurative) To defeat; to overpower. [from 17th. c.]
(transitive, colloquial) To disparage; to put down. [from 18th c.]
(intransitive, rare or obsolete) To go or come down; to descend. [from 17th. c.]
(transitive, colloquial) To drink or swallow, especially without stopping before the vessel containing the liquid is empty. [from 19th c.]
(transitive, American football, Canadian football) To render (the ball) dead, typically by touching the ground while in possession. [from 19th c.]
(transitive, golf, pocket billiards) To sink (a ball) into a hole or pocket. [from 20th c.]
Examples
The storm downed several old trees along the highway.
A single rifle shot downed the mighty beast.
The helicopter was downed by a surface-to-air missile.
The bell rang for lunch, and the workers downed their tools.
To down proud hearts that would not willing die.
‘I remember how you downed Beauclerk and Hamilton, the Wits, once at our House, – when they talked of Ghosts.’
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 is against homosexuality and is causing a lot of confusion here.
...that is, that the trade of the world is too little for us two, therefore one must down.
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.
He downed it at the seven-yard line.
He downed two balls on the break.
Related words
synonyms
(drink): See also Thesaurus:drink
noun
down (plural downs)
A negative aspect; a downer, a downside.
(dated) A grudge (on someone).
An act of swallowing an entire drink at once.
(American football) 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.
(crosswords) A clue whose solution runs vertically in the grid.
A downstairs room of a two-story house.
Down payment.
The lightest quark with a charge number of −1⁄3.
Examples
I love almost everything about my job. The only down is that I can't take Saturdays off.
She had a down on me. I don't know what for, I'm sure; because I never said a word.
I bet after the third down, the kicker will replace the quarterback on the field.
I haven't solved 12 or 13 across, but I've got most of the downs.
She lives in a two-up two-down.
Etimology
From Middle English doune, from Old English dūn, from Proto-West Germanic *dūn (“sandhill, dune”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Proto-Germanic *dūnaz, *dūnǭ (“pile, heap”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- (“smoke, haze, dust”). Alternatively, perhaps borrowed from Proto-Celtic *dūnom (“hill; hillfort”) (compare Welsh din (“hill”), Irish dún (“hill, fort”)), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- (“to finish, come full circle”). Cognate with West Frisian dún (“dune, sandhill”), Dutch duin (“dune, sandhill”), German Düne (“dune”). More at town; akin to dune. Doublet of Down.
noun
down (countable and uncountable, plural downs)
(especially Southern England, also Australia, often plural, often in place names) A hill; in England, especially a chalk hill.
(usually in the plural) A field, especially one used for horse racing.
(UK, chiefly in the plural) A tract of poor, sandy, undulating or hilly land near the sea, covered with fine turf which serves chiefly for the grazing of sheep.
Examples
We went for a walk over the downs.
The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England.
And with each end of thy blue bow dost crown My bosky acres and my unshrubb'd down
...as they muſt needs acknowledge who have been on the Downs of Suſſex, and enjoyed that ravishing Proſpect of the Sea on one Hand, and the Country far and wide on the other.
She went by dale, and she went by down, With a single rose in her hair.
The amateur nature-lover proceeds over the down, appreciating all this as hard as he can appreciate, and anon gazing up at the grey and white cloud shapes melting slowly from this form to that, and showing lakes, and wide expanses, and serene distances of blue between their gaps.
Seven thousand broad-taild Sheepe gras'd on his Downes;
Etimology
From Middle English doun, from Old Norse dúnn, from Proto-Germanic *dūnaz (“down”), which is related to *dauniz (“(pleasant) smell”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰowh₂-nis, from the root *dʰewh₂-. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Duune (“fluff, down”), German Daune (“down”) and Danish dun (“down”).
noun
down (countable and uncountable, plural downs)
Soft, fluffy immature feathers which grow on young birds. Used as insulating material in duvets, sleeping bags and jackets.
(botany) The pubescence of plants; the hairy crown or envelope of the seeds of certain plants, such as the thistle.
The soft hair of the face when beginning to appear.
That which is made of down, as a bed or pillow; that which affords ease and repose, like a bed of down.
Examples
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 pricks
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.
But love him as he was, when youthful Grace, And the firſt Down began to ſhade his face
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.
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.
When in the down I sink my head, Sleep, Death's twin brother, times my breath.
verb
down (third-person singular simple present downs, present participle downing, simple past and past participle downed)
(transitive) To cover, ornament, line, or stuff with down.
Examples
What pain to quit the world, just made their own, Their nest so deeply downed, and built so high !