Wiktionary

downward

English

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  It has been requested that this entry be merged with downwards(+).

Etymology

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down +‎ -ward

Pronunciation

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  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈdaʊnwɚd/
  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈdaʊnwəd/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Adverb

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downward (not comparable)

  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.
  2. At a lower level.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 462–463:
      Dagon his Name, Sea Monster, upward Man / And downward Fish […]
  3. Southward.
    • 1927, Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex‎[1], volume 2:
      If we turn to the New World, we find that among the American Indians, from the Eskimo of Alaska downward to Brazil and still farther south, homosexual customs have been very frequently observed.

Synonyms

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Antonyms

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Translations

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Adjective

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downward (not comparable)

  1. Moving, sloping or oriented downward.
    He spoke with a downward glance.
  2. Located at a lower level.
    • The template Template:RQ:Pope Windsor Forest does not use the parameter(s): 
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      1713, Alexander Pope, “Windsor-Forest. […]”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, →OCLC, page 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 (translator), The Phædo in The Cratylus, Phædo, Parmenides and Timæus of Plato, London: Benjamin and John White, p. 235,[4]
      […] often revolving itself under the earth, [the river] flows into the more downward parts of Tartarus.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Anagrams

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