downstreamadv.adj.n.
/ˌdaʊnˈstriːm/, U.S. /ˌdaʊnˈstrim/ A. adv.
1. Further along the course of a stream; in the direction of the mouth of a stream; following the current of a stream. Also figurative.
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the world > the earth > water > rivers and streams > system > [adverb] > downstream
downstream1591
beneath1650
below1810
downriver1820
1591 J. Harington tr. L. Ariosto Orlando Furioso xliii. xli. 362/1 When Phebus charret trode his Western path, That night in a small barge, that was her owne, Down streame she swimmeth, as if she had flowne.
1614 W. Raleigh Hist. World i. iii. 55 For this Riuer..diuides it selfe, and ere long yeeldeth fower notable passages into seuerall Countries, though not all the way downe streame.
1694 tr. N. Rémond des Cours True Conduct Persons of Quality lxx. 166 Never let us be carried down stream by the impetuous Torrent of our Passions.
1706 in Rec. Plymouth (Mass.) (1889) I. 26 Bounded by said river..down stream unto the upper end of the meadow.
1797 W. Chapman Observ. Syst. Canal Navigation vi. 68 The principal trade, as to bulk being downward, it is clearly the best to send the articles down stream without the ships.
1864 T. Carlyle Hist. Friedrich II of Prussia IV. xvii. v. 560 Königstein a little down-stream of Schandau.
1865 H. B. Stowe House & Home Papers 316 There is a general tendency to let all sorts of old forms and observances float down-stream.
1869 R. D. Blackmore Lorna Doone I. vii. 77 Even an otter might float down-stream.
1878 R. L. Stevenson Inland Voy. 196 Canoeing was easy work... To keep the head down stream.
1929 H. Belloc Joan of Arc iii. 62 The French forces lay downstream.
1957 P. Caraman Henry Morse vii. 66 Across the river, about a mile downstream, a path ran from the bank.
2014 Red Bull. May 77/2 In its simplest terms, canyoneering is the descent of a canyon by any means necessary—that includes..rappelling, and route-finding your way downstream.
2.
a. In or at any of the stages of oil or gas production that follow extraction, esp. those of refining, distribution, and marketing.
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1959 M. G. de Chazeau & A. E. Kahn Integration & Competition in Petroleum Industry xix. 527 Nothing short of a divorce of the ownership of crude oil from operations downstream would remove entirely the taint of an unearned increment in oil in the competition of integrated firms at other stages of the industry.
1991 Investors Chron. 26 July 32/2 Shell is bigger downstream than BP, deriving a larger slice of its revenues from refining and marketing the oil it finds.
2016 Nat. Gas Week (Nexis) 18 July She also sees Australian companies investing downstream in floating regasification to create new markets.
b. More generally: in or to the later stages of any industrial, manufacturing, or commercial process.
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1981 Bell Jrnl. Econ. 12 517 A flexible production process downstream combined with a plant whose capacity is fixed at an uncertain level upstream would induce this condition.
1993 J. Kay Found. Corporate Success vi. xix. 317 The vertical relationships that matter to BA [sc. British Airways] are those upstream with airframe and aeroengine manufacturers and downstream with travel agents.
2001 J. I. Moore Writers on Strategy & Strategic Managem. (ed. 2) 165 The ‘purest forms’ of R-SD and R-CD are, respectively, horizontal diversification (e.g. when a company with blast furnaces acquires another in a different region), and vertical integration (e.g. when a food processor moves downstream into food wholesaling).
3. Molecular Biology. With reference to a nucleic acid molecule or a genetic sequence: in the direction towards which transcription takes place; towards the 3′ end of a strand. Opposed to upstream adv. and adj. Additions.
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the world > life > biology > biological processes > genetic activity > [adverb] > transcription > downstream direction of
downstream1968
1968 Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quant. Biol. 33 479/1 Either..the normal initiation takes place at the repressor binding site in x,..or the origin is downstream from the operator.
1973 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 70 2915/1 The actual initiation sites for RNA synthesis are located some 200 nucleotide pairs downstream with respect to the direction of transcription.
1990 EMBO Jrnl. 9 2632/1 In plasmid pToto.2, we have provided the nsP2 gene with an initiation codon preceding the Ala1 codon, and an amber stop codon immediately downstream of the 3′ terminal Ala807 codon.
2014 Science 22 Aug. 876/3 Ligand binding to the aptamer domain of a riboswitch causes structural changes downstream in the RNA.
B. adj.
1. That is situated nearer to the mouth of a stream; that follows the direction of a stream's current.
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the world > the earth > water > rivers and streams > system > [adjective] > downstream
downstream1767
downriver1825
1767 J. Smeaton Reports (1812) III. 6 I entirely disapprove of all jetties built into the stream..; for they seldom fail of producing a deep pit, either opposite to, or on the downstream side of the jetty.
1842 Amer. Pioneer 1 70 Steam-boats seem almost to say, we will do your up-stream business for nothing, if you will give us your down-stream business.
1891 W. Morris News from Nowhere ii. 8 Even the up-stream bridges..are scarcely daintier, and the down-stream ones are scarcely more dignified and stately.
1909 Trans. Amer. Soc. Mech. Engineers 30 443 ‘Surge tank’ is a term applied to a stand pipe or storage reservoir placed at the down-stream end of a closed aqueduct to prevent undue rise of pressure.
1954 R. St. B. Baker Sahara Challenge iii. 39 The down-stream rush of water is decreased.
1993 Outdoor Canada May 22/2 It's important to trim the upstream end of the canoe a little higher than the downstream. Just put the packs or a big rock in the downstream end.
2009 Nature 14 May 163/3 Water may also become a casus belli between states, if the downstream nation is considerably stronger militarily than the one upstream.
2.
a. Designating or relating to the later stages of an industrial, manufacturing, or commercial process, or (in early use) a subordinate part of a commercial operation.
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1939 Michigan Law Rev. 37 1001 In some instances the mortgage is executed by the parent corporation to strengthen the collateral behind a security issue of the subsidiary, the so-called downstream mortgage.
1966 Western Econ. Jrnl. 5 33 When its downstream stage has the larger capacity, on a slackening of demand the integrated company need reduce operations at only this stage.
1997 Metalworking Production Apr. M7/1 In addition to visualisation, fit and function, rapid prototyping is used in a number of downstream processes for the mould and die sector.
2018 Japan News (Nexis) 19 Mar. (Business section) 1 The upstream phase involving product development and parts manufacturing,..[and] the downstream phase involving maintenance and customer service.
b. spec. Of or relating to the stages of oil or gas production that follow extraction, esp. those of refining, distribution, and marketing.
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1963 Economist 21 Sept. 1042/2 These profits also have to provide a return on much larger ‘downstream’ investment in transport, refining and marketing.
1995 Gulf Marketing Rev. Oct. 43/3 All of the GCC states have developed downstream hydrocarbon processing industries incorporating petroleum refineries and in some instances gas liquefaction.
2011 N.Y. Times Mag. 3 Apr. 57 (advt.) We are investing in Upstream, Midstream and Downstream sectors within the oil and gas value chain in order to build a strong portfolio of global assets.
3. Molecular Biology. With reference to a nucleic acid molecule or a genetic sequence: situated towards the 3′ end of a strand (i.e. in the direction towards which transcription takes place) relative to a given location.
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1969 Jrnl. Cellular Physiol. 74 Suppl. i. 33 Transcription can be rendered independent of negative repressor control..by insertion of new promoters—e.g., c17, or ric- on the ‘downstream’ side of the operator.
2007 K. V. Morris & F. Wong-Staal in T. Friedmann & J. Rossi Gene Transfer iv. 39 To minimize expression of any HIV-2 sequences in the target cells, and to avoid upstream promoter interference with the downstream transgene promoter, the 3′ LTR can be mutated to generate self-inactivating (SIN) vectors.
C. n.
A position or place further along the course of a stream or closer to its mouth. Usually following a preposition and sometimes with of.
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1900 Westm. Gaz. 10 July 2/2 He found the sudd of the flood..still in the White Nile, downstream of Lake No... Dr. Schweinfurth..found the ‘sudd’ to the downstream of Lake No, as before.
1912 Ann. Assoc. Amer. Geographers 2 71 Natives from downstream and even from the Kobuk make annual trips to this part to secure their winter's supply of caribou meat.
1934 J. L. Myres in E. Eyre European Civilisation I. ii. 115 There were certainly casual immigrants from down-stream.
1972 Evolution 26 310/1 The dispersal of vegetative propagules and seed is mostly unidirectional from upstream towards downstream.
2004 Church Times 7 May 32/4 The artist, a youth from downstream who was often in the village to visit his Aunt Smith.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2018; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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adv.adj.n.1591