Loading page
say it: down
down is an adjective, verb, adverb and noun meaning "being or moving lower in position or less in some value". It carries 26 recorded senses.
extending or moving from a higher to a lower place
“the down staircase”
“the downward course of the stream”
not functioning (temporarily or permanently)
“we can't work because the computer is down”
filled with melancholy and despondency
“gloomy at the thought of what he had to face”
“gloomy predictions”
“a gloomy silence”
“took a grim view of the economy”
“the darkening mood”
“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”
eat up completely, as with great appetite
“Some people can down a pound of meat in the course of one meal”
“The teenagers demolished four pizzas among them”
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”
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 Florida”
paid in cash at time of purchase
“put ten dollars down on the necklace”
from an earlier time
“the story was passed down from father to son”
to a lower intensity
“he slowly phased down the light until the stage was completely black”
in an inactive or inoperative state
“the factory went down during the strike”
“the computer went down again”
soft fine feathers
(American football) a complete play to advance the football
“you have four downs to gain ten yards”
American football
English physician who first described Down's syndrome (1828-1896)
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for down come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.