downstairs, advb. phr. (a., n.)
(see below)
Less freq. downstair (esp. as adj.).
a. adv. phr. (daʊnˈstɛəz). Down the stairs; on or to a lower floor or (fig.) ‘the lower regions’.
| 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 112 His industry is vp⁓staires and down-staires, his eloquence the parcell of a reckoning. 1597 ― 2 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 202 Thrust him downe stayres. a 1631 Drayton Wks. II. 490 (Jod.) When upstair one, downstair another, hies. 1791 Mrs. Radcliffe Rom. Forest x, As she went downstairs. a 1845 Barham Ingol. Leg., Bros. Birchington xxiii, Such affairs..are bruited about..‘down-stairs’ Where Old Nick [etc.]. 1883 Reade Many a Slip in Harper's Mag. Dec. 133/2 Down⁓stairs the lady did not charm. |
b. attrib. or adj. (ˈdaʊnstɛə(z)).
| 1819 Metropolis I. 146 At the feet of down stairs Cinderella. 1824 Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 222, I have sometimes..feared that her down-stair life was less happy. Mod. The downstairs rooms. |
c. n. (daʊnˈstɛəz). The downstairs part of a building; the lower regions.
| 1843 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. I. 254 The old green curtains of downstairs were become filthy. 1877 H. Smart Play or Pay (1878) 125 The accredited down stairs is so utterly overstocked with that pavement [good intentions]. 1896 Westm. Gaz. 23 Apr. 2/3 The magistrate could not discriminate whether upstairs or down-stairs began [the fight]. |