1597 J. Gerard Herball ii. 1060 Kidney Vetch hath..leaues, like those of the Lentill, couered as it were with a soft white downinesse.

1640 J. Parkinson Theatrum Botanicum ii. xxx. 1107 The heads at the toppes are small and somewhat long with the roundnesse, composed as it were all of a hairy hoary downinesse.

1670 W. Simpson Hydrol. Ess. 14 Vapours arise out of the iron which turn into a downiness.

1708 Brit. Apollo 10–15 Dec. Small peas..cover'd over with a hoary kind of downyness.

1758 W. Bailey Treat. Better Employment of Poor in Workhouses 70 Springing wastes the Substance of the Yarn, and makes a fuzzy Downiness even on the Cloth as well as on the Yarn.

1849 G. W. Francis Art of Modelling Waxen Flowers 20 To Put a Downiness or Powdering upon Fruit.—One of the powders mentioned on page 17 is adapted for this purpose.

1876 C. V. Riley 8th Ann. Rep. Noxious, Beneficial & other Insects State Missouri 160 The varieties of Lubrusca which are characterized by an abundant downiness on the under surface of the leaves suffer most from the insect.

1941 National Hort. Mag. 21 143/2 Its most pronounced characteristic is the heavy light grey downiness on the young growth.

2011 G. M. Cunningham et al. Plants Western New S. Wales (new ed.) 218/2 The whole plant covered with a dense white to grey downiness, which becomes sparser with age.

1797 J. Bailey & G. Culley Gen. View Agric. Northumberland vii. 66 The downy chaffed wheats have shorter straw..but then we are apprehensive that this downiness makes them retain the dews and moisture upon the ear much longer.

1810 J. E. Smith Eng. Bot. XXXI. 2198 The wartiness, as well as the downiness, of the branches seemed variable.

1855 R. Browning Respectability iii, in Men & Women I. 150 Your lip's contour and downiness.

1870 Chambers's Jrnl. 6 Aug. 501/1 Her hand rested in his for a moment with the cold unresisiting downiness of the body of a dead dove.

1930 Mason City (Iowa) Globe Gaz. 23 Apr. 5/2 If your face tends to downiness, use creams more sparingly.

1996 Chiltern Seeds Catal. 101 You will find plants with most attractively veined leaves with varying degrees of downiness well worth growing on this account alone.

2014 Jrnl. Tribune (York County, Maine) 6 May a4/2 Inaudible messages come to me through the downiness of a beech leaf, the softness of a tuft of moss or the rough bark of an old oak.

1865 Temple Bar Aug. 335 ‘Downy Dobb’ they've called me, and I've been proud of it; but I should find my downiness go against me if I was in trouble.

1871 Observer 12 Nov. 6/5 Downiness was his characteristic. Every line in his face was wide-awake, and as for his eyes, they were..everywhere at once.

1894 Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago) 7 Feb. 6/7 If there is a downiness to his methods now there is enough cleverness in his work to give rise to the hope that he will produce some admirable plays ere long.

1900 Westm. Budget 31 Aug. 25/2 In our way we respect them for what we call their downiness, which is a thing we have a regard for.

1919 E. Phillpotts Storm in Teacup 60 It was true that Mr. Trood had said that Knox was ‘downy’, but his downiness had not yet appeared to simpler eyes.

1940 M. Bagshaw Books for Boys & Girls (ed. 2) 259 The Head was ‘a downy old bird’, but ‘downiness’ was essential if anyone was to match wits with Stalky and Co.