▪ I. downcast, v. Now only poet.
(daʊnˈkɑːst, -æ-)
[f. down adv. + cast v.]
trans. To cast down (lit. and fig.); to overthrow, demolish; to deject, dispirit. Hence downˈcasting vbl. n.
| a 1300 E.E. Psalter lxxv. 6 In ax and in thixil þai it doun-caste. c 1425 Found. St. Bartholomew's (E.E.T.S.) 9 By a cruell downecastyng. a 1572 Knox Hist. Ref. Wks. (1846) I. 341 For the..abolishment of idolatrie, and for douncasting the places of the same. 1724 Wodrow Corr. (1843) III. 120 The occasion of your downcastings. 1839 Longfellow Mass for Dying Year xii, The stars from heaven down-cast. |
▪ II. downcast, n.
(ˈdaʊnkɑːst, -æ-)
[f. down adv. + cast n.; cf. prec. vb.]
1. The act of casting down (lit. and fig.); overthrow, demolition, ruin; downward cast (of the eyes or look). b. Geol. = downthrow 2.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 23721 (Cott.) Dame fortune turnes þan hir quele And castes vs dun..O þat dun-cast we mai wit chance Enentis þis werld get couerance. 1612 T. James Jesuits' Downf. 11 Exaltation of themselues, and downecast of all that side not with them. 1723 Steele Consc. Lovers ii. i, I saw the respectful Downcast of his Eyes. 1819 Rees Cycl., Downcast, a term among Miners and Colliers for the sinking down of the measures or strata on one side of a fault. 1881 Q. Rev. July 102 Upliftings and downcasts of strata. |
2. The throwing down of a current of air into a coal-mine, etc.; attrib. in downcast shaft, the shaft by which fresh air is introduced into a mine, also ellipt. called the down-cast.
| 1816 Holmes Coal-mines Durham, etc. 78 Ventilation..is accomplished by means of a stream of air which descends the Downcast Shaft and passes through the workings until it finds the Upcast Shaft, through which it ascends. 1859 Ann. Reg. 43 Worked by a single shaft, for both the ‘up-cast’ and the ‘down-cast’. 1880 J. Lomas Alkali Trade 150 The heat and smoke are..drawn away to the chimney by means of the downcast. 1881 19th Cent. No. 48. 239. |
▪ III. downcast, ppl. a.
(ˈdaʊnkɑːst, -æ-)
[f. down adv. + cast ppl. a.; also as pa. pple. of downcast v.]
1. Cast down; ruined, destroyed; fig. dejected.
| 1602 Marston Antonio's Rev. v. vi. Wks. 1856 I. 143 The downe-cast ruines of calamitie. 1611 Heywood Gold. Age iii. i. Wks. 1874 III. 42 In the repairing of your downe-cast state. 1832 H. Martineau Homes Abroad iii. 43 A few looked downcast. 1849 Grote Greece ii. lx. V. 291 A downcast stupor and sense of abasement possessed every man. |
2. Of looks, etc.: Directed downwards; dejected.
| 1633 G. Herbert Temple, Ch. Militant 86 Where first the Church should raise her down-cast face. 1718 Prior Power 787 With downcast eyelids, and with looks aghast. 1868 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) II. viii. 166 With downcast eyes and bated breath. |
Hence ˈdowncastness.
| a 1851 Moir Sonn., Scot. Sabbath ii, Your doubts to chase, your downcastness to cheer. |