downward

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Pronunciation

• (America) IPA: /ˈdaʊnwɚd/
• (British) IPA: /ˈdaʊnwəd/

Adverb

downward

1. Toward a lower level, whether in physical space, in a hierarchy, or in amount or value.

   His position in society moved ever downward.

   The natural disasters put downward pressure on the creditworthiness of the nation’s insurance groups.

   • circa 1590s Michael Drayton, “The Ninth Eglog” in Poemes Lyrick and Pastorall, London: N.L. and I. Flasket (no date), published by the Spenser Society, 1891, p. 94,

     Whose presence, as she went along,

     The prety flowers did greet,

     As though their heads they downward bent

     With homage to her feete.

   • circa 1602 William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well, Act III, Scene 7,

     […] a ring the county wears,

     That downward hath succeeded in his house

     From son to son, some four or five descents

   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, London: W. Taylor, p. 71,

     […] their Sight was so directed downward, that they did not readily see Objects that were above them […]

   • 1878, Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native, Book I, Chapter 4,

     Down, downward they went, and yet further down—their descent at each step seeming to outmeasure their advance.

2. At a lower level.
   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, London, Book I, lines 462-463,

     Dagon his Name, Sea Monster, upward Man

     And downward Fish […]

Synonyms

• down, downwards

Antonyms

• up, upwards

Translations

• German: abwärts, nach unten, runter
• Russian: вниз

Adjective

downward

1. Moving, sloping or oriented downward.

   He spoke with a downward glance.

   • 1593, William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis (Shakespeare poem),

     But this foul, grim, and urchin-snouted boar,

     Whose downward eye still looketh for a grave,

     Ne’er saw the beauteous livery that he wore;

   • 1728, James Thomson (poet, born 1700), Spring. A Poem, London: A. Millar, p. 12,

     […] in the Western Sky, the downward Sun

     Looks out illustrious from amid the Flush

     Of broken Clouds […]

   • 1897, H. G. Wells, The Invisible Man, Chapter 28,

     Emerging into the hill-road, Kemp naturally took the downward direction […]

   • 1952, Patricia Highsmith, The Price of Salt, Mineola, New York: Dover, 2015, Chapter 7, p. 73,

     […] Therese saw a downward slant of sadness in her mouth now, a sadness not of wisdom but of defeat.

2. Located at a lower level.
   • 1713, Alexander Pope, Windsor-Forest, London: Bernard Lintott, p. 9,

     In her chast Current oft the Goddess laves,

     And with Celestial Tears augments the Waves.

     Oft in her Glass the musing Shepherd spies

     The headlong Mountains and the downward Skies,

     The watry Landskip of the pendant Woods,

     And absent Trees that tremble in the Floods;

   • 1793, Thomas Taylor (neoplatonist) (translator), Phaedo in The Cratylus, Phædo, Parmenides and Timæus of Plato, London: Benjamin and John White, p. 235,

     […] often revolving itself under the earth, [the river] flows into the more downward parts of Tartarus.

Translations

• German: nach unten gehend, absteigend, niedersinkend, Abwärts-
• Russian: спускаться

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