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down |
11 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Down \Down\, adv [For older adown, AS ad?n, ad?ne, prop., from or off the hill. See 3d {Down}, and cf {Adown}, and cf {Adown}.] 1. In the direction of gravity or toward the center of the earth; toward or in a lower place or position; below; -- the opposite of up 2. Hence in many derived uses, as: a From a higher to a lower position, literally or figuratively; in a descending direction; from the top of an ascent; from an upright position; to the ground or floor; to or into a lower or an inferior condition; as into a state of humility, disgrace, misery, and the like into a state of rest; -- used with verbs indicating motion. It will be rain to-night. Let it come down --Shak. I sit me down beside the hazel grove. --Tennyson. And that drags down his life. --Tennyson. There is not a more melancholy object in the learned world than a man who has written himself down --Addison. The French . . . shone down [i. e., outshone] the English. --Shak. b In a low or the lowest position, literally or figuratively; at the bottom of a decent; below the horizon; of the ground; in a condition of humility, dejection, misery, and the like in a state of quiet. I was down and out of breath. --Shak. The moon is down I have not heard the clock. --Shak. He that is down needs fear no fall. --Bunyan. 3. From a remoter or higher antiquity. Venerable men! you have come down to us from a former generation. --D. Webster. 4. From a greater to a less bulk, or from a thinner to a thicker consistence; as to boil down in cookery, or in making decoctions. --Arbuthnot. Note: Down is sometimes used elliptically, standing for go down come down tear down take down put down haul down pay down and the like especially in command or exclamation. Down therefore, and beg mercy of the duke. --Shak. If he be hungry more than wanton, bread alone will down --Locke. Down is also used intensively; as to be loaded down to fall down to hang down to drop down to pay down The temple of Her[`e] at Argos was burnt down --Jowett (Thucyd. ). Down as well as up is sometimes used in a conventional sense as down East. Persons in London say down to Scotland, etc., and those in the provinces, up to London. --Stormonth. {Down helm} (Naut.), an order to the helmsman to put the helm to leeward. {Down on} or {upon} (joined with a verb indicating motion, as go come pounce), to attack, implying the idea of threatening power. Come down upon us with a mighty power. --Shak. {Down with}, take down throw down put down -- used in energetic command. ``Down with the palace; fire it.'' --Dryden. {To be down on}, to dislike and treat harshly. [Slang, U.S.] {To cry down}. See under {Cry}, v. t. {To cut down}. See under {Cut}, v. t. {Up and down}, with rising and falling motion; to and fro; hither and thither; everywhere. ``Let them wander up and down.'' --Ps. lix. 15. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Down \Down\, v. t. To cover, ornament, line or stuff with down [R.] --Young. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Down \Down\, n. [OE. dun, doun, AS d?n; of Celtic origin; cf Ir d?n hill, fortified hill, Gael. dun heap, hillock, hill, W. din a fortified hill or mount; akin to E. town. See {Town}, and cf {Down}, adv & prep., {Dune}.] 1. A bank or rounded hillock of sand thrown up by the wind along or near the shore; a flattish-topped hill; -- usually in the plural. Hills afford prospects, as they must needs acknowledge who have been on the downs of Sussex. --Ray. She went by dale, and she went by down --Tennyson. 2. A tract of poor, sandy, undulating or hilly land near the sea, covered with fine turf which serves chiefly for the grazing of sheep; -- usually in the plural. [Eng.] Seven thousand broad-tailed sheep grazed on his downs. --Sandys. 3. pl A road for shipping in the English Channel or Straits of Dover, near Deal employed as a naval rendezvous in time of war. On the 11th [June, 1771] we run up the channel . . . at noon we were abreast of Dover, and about three came to an anchor in the Downs, and went ashore at Deal --Cook (First Voyage). 4. pl [From the adverb.] A state of depression; low state; abasement. [Colloq.] It the downs of life too much outnumber the ups. --M. Arnold. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Down \Down\, prep. [From {Down}, adv.] 1. In a descending direction along from a higher to a lower place upon or within; at a lower place in or on as down a hill; down a well 2. Hence: Towards the mouth of a river; towards the sea; as to sail or swim down a stream; to sail down the sound. {Down the country}, toward the sea, or toward the part where rivers discharge their waters into the ocean. {Down the sound}, in the direction of the ebbing tide; toward the sea. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Down \Down\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Downed}; p. pr & vb n. {Downing}.] To cause to go down to make descend; to put down to overthrow, as in wrestling; hence to subdue; to bring down [Archaic or Colloq.] ``To down proud hearts.'' --Sir P. Sidney. I remember how you downed Beauclerk and Hamilton, the wits, once at our house. --Madame D'Arblay. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Down \Down\, v. i. To go down to descend. --Locke. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Down \Down\, a. 1. Downcast; as a down look [R.] 2. Downright; absolute; positive; as a down denial. [Obs.] --Beau. & Fl 3. Downward; going down sloping; as a down stroke; a down grade; a down train on a railway. {Down draught}, a downward draft, as in a flue, chimney, shaft of a mine, etc {Down in the mouth}, chopfallen; dejected. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Down \Down\, n. [Akin to LG dune, dun, Icel. d?nn, Sw dun, Dan. duun, G. daune, cf D. dons; perh. akin to E. dust.] 1. Fine, soft, hairy outgrowth from the skin or surface of animals or plants, not matted and fleecy like wool; esp.: a (Zo["o]l.) The soft under feathers of birds. They have short stems with soft rachis and bards and long threadlike barbules, without hooklets. b (Bot.) The pubescence of plants; the hairy crown or envelope of the seeds of certain plants, as of the thistle. c The soft hair of the face when beginning to appear. And the first down begins to shade his face. --Dryden. 2. That which is made of down as a bed or pillow; that which affords ease and repose, like a bed of down When in the down I sink my head, Sleep, Death's twin brother, times my breath. --Tennyson. Thou bosom softness, down of all my cares! --Southern. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: down adj 1: being or moving lower in position or less in some value; "lay face down"; "the moon is down"; "our team is down by a run"; "down by a pawn"; "the stock market is down today" [ant: {up}] 2: becoming progressively lower; "steadily declining incomes"; "the down trend in the real estate market" [syn: {declining}, {down(a)}] 3: understood perfectly; "had his algebra problems down" [syn: {down pat(p)}, {mastered}] 4: extending or moving from a higher to a lower place "the down staircase"; "the downward course of the stream" [syn: {down(a)}, {downward(a)}] 5: out "two down in the last of the ninth" [syn: {down(p)}] 6: lower than previously; "the market is depressed"; "prices are down" [syn: {depressed}, {down(p)}] 7: shut; "the shades were down" 8: (used of computers) temporarily not operating; "can't do a thing because the computers are down" [syn: {down(p)}] 9: cut down "the tree is down" [syn: {cut}, {cut down}] 10: not functioning; "we can't work because the computer is down" 11: low in spirits; "lonely and blue in a strange city"; "depressed by the loss of his job"; "a dispirited and resigned expression on her face"; "downcast after his defeat"; "feeling discouraged and downhearted" [syn: {blue}, {depressed}, {dispirited}, {down(p)}, {downcast}, {downhearted}, {low}, {low-spirited}] 12: the fractional price paid in cash at time of purchase; "the down payment"; "a payment of $200 down" n 1: soft fine feathers 2: a complete play to advance the football; "you have 4 downs to gain 10 yards" 3: (usually plural) a rolling treeless highland with little soil adv 1: spatially or metaphorically from a higher to a lower level or position; "don't fall down"; "rode the lift up and skied down"; "prices plunged downward" [syn: {downwards}, {downward}, {downwardly}] [ant: {up}, {up}, {up}, {up}] 2: away from a more central or a more northerly place "was sent down to work at the regional office"; "worked down on the farm"; "came down for the wedding"; "flew down to Flordia" [ant: {up}] 3: paid in cash at time of purchase; "put ten dollars down on the necklace" 4: from an earlier time; "the story was passed down from father to son" 5: to a lower intensity; "he slowly phased down the light until the stage was completely black" [ant: {up}] 6: in an inactive or inoperative state; "the factory went down during the strike"; "the computer went down again" v 1: drink down entirely; "He downed three martinis before dinner"; "She killed a bottle of brandy that night" [syn: {toss off}, {bolt down}, {belt down}, {pour down}, {drink down}, {kill}] 2: eat immoderately; "Some people can down a pound of meat in the course of one meal" [syn: {devour}, {consume}, {go through}] 3: bring down or defeat, in sports 4: shoot at and force to come down of aircraft [syn: {shoot down}, {land}] 5: cause to come or go down "The policeman downed the heavily armed suspect" [syn: {knock down}, {cut down}, {push down}, {pull down}] 6: improve or perfect by pruning or polishing; "refine one's style of writing" [syn: {polish}, {refine}, {fine-tune}] From Jargon File (4.2.3, 23 NOV 2000) [jargon]: down 1. adj Not operating. "The up escalator is down" is considered a humorous thing to say (unless of course you were expecting to use it), and "The elevator is down" always means "The elevator isn't working" and never refers to what floor the elevator is on With respect to computers, this term has passed into the mainstream; the extension to other kinds of machine is still confined to techies (e.g. boiler mechanics may speak of a boiler being down). 2. `go down' vi To stop functioning; usually said of the {system}. The message from the {console} that every hacker hates to hear from the operator is "System going down in 5 minutes". 3. `take down', `bring down' vt To deactivate purposely, usually for repair work or {PM}. "I'm taking the system down to work on that bug in the tape drive." Occasionally one hears the word `down' by itself used as a verb in this vt sense See {crash}; oppose {up}. From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (13 Mar 01) [foldoc]: down 1. Not operating. "The up escalator is down" is considered a humorous thing to say and "The elevator is down" always means "The elevator isn't working" and never refers to what floor the elevator is on With respect to computers, this term has passed into the mainstream; the extension to other kinds of machine is still hackish. 2. "go down" To stop functioning; usually said of the {system}. The message from the {console} that every hacker hates to hear from the operator is "System going down in 5 minutes". 3. "take down", "bring down" To deactivate purposely, usually for repair work or {PM}. "I'm taking the system down to work on that bug in the tape drive." Occasionally one hears the word down" by itself used as a verb in this sense See {crash}; opposite: {up}. [{Jargon File}] (1994-12-07)
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