downward, adv. (prep.) and a.
(ˈdaʊnwəd)
For forms see down adv.
[Primarily an aphetic form of adownward, in OE. ad{uacu}nweard; but subseq. referred directly to down: see -ward.]
A. adv.
1. Towards a lower place or position; towards what is below: with a descending motion or tendency. a. in reference to movement through space.
| c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 105 Ech god giue..cumeð of heuene dunward. c 1230 Hali Meid. 19 Ha..walden fallen duneward. 1297 R. Glouc. (1724) 362 As hii þat donward come. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xiii. xxiv. (1495) 456 A drope..fallyth dounwarde by his owne heuynesse. 1535 Coverdale 2 Kings xx. 10 It is an easy thinge for the shadowe to go ten degrees downewarde. 1641 French Distill. i. (1651) 40 This Oil taken inwardly worketh upward and downward. 1887 Bowen Virg. æneid i. 607 While streams downward run to the sea. |
b. in reference to direction, attitude, or aspect.
| c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xix. 87 Lukand douneward to þe erthe. c 1450 Douce MS. 55 ch. x, Tourne the brede doun⁓warde in the panne. 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 113, I looke downeward to my feete. 1793 Southey Triumph Woman 302 Why downward droops his musing head? 1855 Browning Old Pictures in Florence x, 'Tis looking downward makes one dizzy. |
c. in reference to position or situation.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 9887 (Cott.) Þis castel dunward þan es it polist slight. c 1391 Chaucer Astrol. ii. §36 Thanne set I the point..downward in the same signe. c 1511 1st Eng. Bk. Amer. (Arb.) Introd. 33/2 Fro ye myddell don⁓warde ben they lyke the halfe neder parte of an horse. 1641 J. Jackson True Evang. T. ii. 115 [St. Peter] was crucified..with his head downward. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 463 Dagon his Name, Sea Monster, upward Man And downward Fish. 1854 J. Scoffern in Orr's Circ. Sc. Chem. 24 Metallic cones, ranged apices downward. |
2. fig. a. Towards that which is lower in order, or inferior in any way.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 1943 (Cott.) Fra me dun-ward drogh man his thoght. c 1440 Jacob's Well (E.E.T.S.) 48 In þe lyne of kynrede dounward, Þi sone to þe is in þe firste degre. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. iv. 260 The Peichtis in thair guddis and ryches downward began to declyne. a 1732 T. Boston Crook in Lot (1805) 160 God carries his people's circumstances downward..till they come to that point. 1847 Emerson Repr. Men Wks. (Bohn) I. 351 Things seem to tend downward, to justify despondency. |
b. Onward from an earlier to a later time.
| 1611 Bible Transl. Pref. 3 From Christes time downe⁓ward. 1679–1714 Burnet Hist. Ref. an. 1535 (R.) From the twelfth century downward. 1849 Grote Greece ii. lxvi, All the old laws of Athens, from Solon downward. |
3. Comb.
| 1821 Shelley Prometh. Unb. ii. v, Downward-gazing flowers. 1865 G. M. Hopkins Poems (1948) 134 A block of copse Close-rooted in the downward-hollowing fields. 1871 Browning Balaust. 1370 The downward-dwelling people. 1878 B. Taylor Deukalion iii. i. 97. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 377 Exterior splendour may be the surface of a downwardtending lutulent reality. Ibid. 656 Slow erosions of peninsulas and downwardtending peninsulas. 1943 L. B. Lyon Evening in Stepney 14 Fuel for the downward-bending The sod-quickening fire. 1964 J. C. Catford in D. Abercrombie et al. Daniel Jones 35 A downward-forward displacement of the hyoid bone..can easily be observed. |
† B. prep. = down prep. 1. Obs. rare.
| c 1430 Pilgr. Lyf Manhode i. v. (1869) 3 A corde..he hadde set dounward þe wal. |
C. adj.
1. Directed towards that which is lower; descending; inclined downward. a. lit.
| 1552 Huloet, Downewarde, præceps. 1592 Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 1106 This foul..boar, Whose downward eye still looketh for a grave. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 517 The downward track. 1728–46 Thomson Spring 188 In the western sky the downward sun Looks out. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 146 The downward current of the river. |
b. fig.
| a 1586 Sidney (J.) At the lowest of my downward thoughts. 1700 Dryden Sigism. & Guisc. 344 Thy low fall..Shows downward appetite to mix with mud. 1727–46 Thomson Summer 1516 A Hampden..who stemmed the torrent of a downward age To slavery prone. 1869 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) III. xiii. 303 Steps in a downward scale. |
2. Lying or situated below; lower. rare.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 9926 (Gött.) Þat rechis to þe donwar [v.r. neþemest] light. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 341 Aurora..lights the downward Heav'n. 1824 Campbell Theodric 138 The waste and wild Schreckhorn..frowning..Upon a downward world of pastoral charms. |
Hence ˈdownwardly adv. = downward adv.; ˈdownwardness.
| 1839 Bailey Festus iii. (1852) 26 That downwardness of soul. 1850 Browning Easter Day xv. 33 Certain rays..Shot downwardly. 1872 Mivart Elem. Anat. 60 The downwardly tapering condition of the coccygeal vertebræ. |
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▸ downward-mobile adj. chiefly N. Amer. = downwardly mobile adj. at downwardly adv. Compounds 2.
| 1948 Public Opinion Q. 12 700 For 100 cases where the economic status of the public relations men could be compared with that of their fathers,..only seven were *downward mobile. 1959 V. Packard Status Seekers (1960) xviii. 256 Many socially declining or downward-mobile people turn to alcohol or drugs for support. 1994 Philadelphia Tribune (Nexis) 29 Apr. 1 b, Below this..is the steadily downward-mobile, African location known as Soweto. |
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▸ downward mobility n. movement from a higher to a lower social or professional level; loss of wealth and status; cf. upward mobility at upward adv. 1e.
| 1929M. Ginsberg in Econ. Jrnl. 39 562 On the evidence before us there is very little *downward mobility from I to III, and this is not in harmony with the suggestion often made that the lower classes are recruited sensibly from the failures of the upper. 1949H. A. Murray in H. Melville Pierre Introd. p. xxxviii, From wealth to penury, from leisure to toil... A sociologist might call it a tragedy of downward mobility, the exact antithesis of the basic American myth. 1993 Esquire Sept. 126/2 Some men tolerate a little downward mobility just fine—just don't settle for no mobility at all. Men treading water in their careers tend to check out earliest of all. |