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say it: DOWN-kast
downcast is an adjective and noun meaning "directed downward". It carries 3 recorded senses.
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”
a ventilation shaft through which air enters a mine
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 downcast 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.