downwardsadv.adj.

lOE Bounds in T. Hearne Hemingi Chartularium Ecclesiæ Wigorniensis (1723) II. 430 Ðenene onlong gierdes to henne lega ðennene dunewardes onlong gerdes to hole siche.

c1225 (?c1200) St. Katherine (Bodl.) (1981) l. 717 Hwenne þe twa walden keasten uppart..þe odre walden..dusten dunewardes.

c1230 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Corpus Cambr.) (1962) 58 Ower heorte nis nawt on eorðe, for þi ne þurue ȝe nawt deluen dunewardes, ah..driuen hire aȝeinward to deluen þe golthord þet up is in heouene.

a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xvii. clxxxvi. 1083 For þe fyry and ayre partyes moeueþ vpward and erþy partyes moeueþ dounwardes.

1594 T. Bowes tr. P. de la Primaudaye French Acad. II. 364 Sodainely choked by catarrhes, which like to floods of waters, runne downewards.

1598 A. M. tr. J. Guillemeau Frenche Chirurg. 38/1 The skinn and muscles sinck agayne downwardes, and cover the sawed bone.

1648 Bp. J. Wilkins Math. Magick i. ix. 57 The squeezing or pressing of things downewards.

1702 G. Harvey Vanities Philos. & Physick (ed. 3) iii. 109 The Air..moves it more potently and speedily downwards toward the Earth.

1726 W. R. Chetwood Voy. & Adventures Capt. R. Boyle 3 The Tide running downwards.

1807 T. Young Course Lect. Nat. Philos. I. lvii. 721 The meteors denominated shooting stars are observed to move in all directions, as well upwards as downwards.

1884 Proc. Royal Soc. 37 248 [The lachrymal duct] descends obliquely downwards and outwards in the lower forms.

1912 Folk-lore 23 39 He is given several sharp blows on the ribs, beginning under the armpit and working downwards.

1952 J. A. Steers et al. Lake's Physical Geogr. (ed. 3) iii. vi. 302 The loose material produced by weathering is gradually carried downwards, a process known as transport.

2012 Guardian 28 Apr. 37/4 Houses are being expanded downwards, into the earth, to include two or three basements levels.

?a1425 (c1400) Mandeville's Trav. (Titus C.xvi) (1919) 110 (MED) Þerfore make þei the halfondel of ydole of a man vpwardes & the toþer half of an ox dounwardes.

c1440 Prose Life Alexander (Thornton) (1913) 24 (MED) Þe tane..es made of wandez and crukez donwardez at þe ouerend.

1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 461 The toppe of Charyng crosse hath bowed downwardes many a daye.

1577 Vicary's Profitable Treat. Anat. sig. I.i The brode ende..[of the heart] is vpwardes, and the sharpe ende is downewardes.

1620 J. Melton Astrologaster 28 The Antipodites have their feete downewards and their heads upwards as well as wee.

1634 T. Herbert Relation Some Yeares Trauaile 211 Her bill is crooked downwards.

1713 J. Addison in Guardian 9 Sept. 2/2 A poor Ant..with her Head downwards, and her Backside upwards.

1796 W. Withering Arrangem. Brit. Plants (ed. 3) IV. 71 Saucers rust-coloured, large, facing downwards.

1879 J. Lubbock Sci. Lect. ii. 36 The hairs which cover the stalks..usually point downwards.

1884 Folk-lore Jrnl. 2 25 [He] was punished..by the company laying him face downwards and beating him on the back of the body with a heated fire-shovel.

1901 Proc. Zool. Soc. 5 Mar. 172 The roof of the mouth between this tritural border is raised into a dome with the concavity downwards.

1973 M. Amis Rachel Papers 24 During the long pre-copulative session I glanced downwards.

1993 E. N. K. Clarkson Invertebr. Palaeontol. & Evol. (ed. 3) ix. 291/2 These giant crinoids..hanging downwards from a floating log.

1563 J. Shute First Groundes Archit. sig. D.iii^v The other .6. partes that remained from the Abacus downewardes, deuide into .3. partes.

1655 tr. C. Sorel Comical Hist. Francion i. 10 The next object they discovered was Katherine stark naked from the waste downwards.

1757 tr. J. G. Keyssler Trav. II. 286 A small antique Venus, with a drapery from the waist downwards.

1851 Fraser's Mag. Feb. 167/1 From the hips downwards he was remarkably well made.

1878 T. Hardy Return of Native III. vi. i. 269 Wreathing it [sc. a pole] from the top downwards with wild flowers.

1934 H. L. Beales & R. S. Lambert Mem. Unemployed 186 We have to keep the front door bolted at the bottom all the while or there would be a wedge of draught, dust and daylight from the latch downwards to the floor where it gapes open several inches.

1965 Listener 27 May 772/2 They became permanently paralysed from the neck downwards.

1991 R. Krueger et al. This Land of Ours ii. 61/3 This parent material was the same pale colour from the surface downwards for many metres.

1584 R. Cosin Answer to Two Fyrst & Principall Treat. 201 Or else we must yeeld, that all the martyrs and holie fathers in the time of the apostles, and so downewards, were palpablie ignorant of such a perfect, precise, and necessarie point of a true church.

1587 R. Holinshed et al. Hist. Eng. (new ed.) iii. viii. 22/1 (heading) in Holinshed's Chron. (new ed.) I The computation of yeares from the beginning of the British kings of this Iland downewards.

1637 P. Heylyn Antidotum Lincolniense ii. vii. 78 Not that they were not built in any place, at any time, in any other form or fashion, but that it was thus generally,..in all parts of Christendome, from those times downwards.

1687 H. Care Modest Enq. iv. 68 It is pretended to be written by Damasus..describing the Acts of the Bishops of Rome from Pope Peter downwards.

1721 F. Bennet Considerations Eng. Constit. 12 The Popes and their Missionaries, from Austin's time downwards, had had a continual Struggle with the King and State of this Realm.

1792 W. Ross Lect. Pract. Law Scotl. I. 97 The styles and forms of the English common law writs may be found to vary from ours, after the middle of the fifteenth century downwards.

1850 Q. Rev. Apr. 227/2 These agnames, or distinguished and distinguishing epithets, have obtained with the Urquharts from the Deluge downwards.

1866 Biblical Repertory Oct. 658 Anticipations of the exile..are found scattered through all the preëxilic books from the writings of Moses downwards.

1935 Burlington Mag. Mar. p. xviii/1 He traces the growth of road systems from the bronze age downwards.

1977 Notes & Rec. Royal Soc. 32 30 It will be impossible to reconcile the undenied observations of the Ancients with the curious accounts we have of these motions from Tycho Braehe's time downwards.

2011 Sunday Observer (Sri Lanka) (Nexis) 20 Nov. In the narratives of captivity and battle from the 16th century downwards, the Indians were depicted as vicious.

1589 J. Thorie tr. B. Filippe Counseller vi. 24 Fredericus Furius will haue that the Counsellers of Princes be not vnder thirtie yeeres of age, nor aboue threescore, for from the thirtith yeere downwards, mens vnderstanding is not yet setled, their experience is small, [etc.].

a1672 F. Willughby Bk. of Games (2003) 129 The Knave wins all the rest from ten downwards.

1765 R. Jones New Treat. Artific. Fireworks iv. 149 Rockets which go under the denomination of swarmers, are those from two ounces downwards.

1790 J. Bruce Trav. Source Nile V. 77 Teff is used by all sorts of people from the king downwards.

1835 Chambers's Edinb. Jrnl. 3 Jan. 390/3 Worm-gut varies in length from nearly two feet and downwards.

1869 Church Assoc. Monthly Intelligencer June 120 The Church of England is a compact and an alliance between the various classes of our free community, from the Queen downwards to the humblest peasant.

1920 Daily Tel. 22 June 1/2 Stones of various weights from 1¾ carats downwards.

1947 P. Larkin Let. 14 Sept. in Sel. Lett. (1992) 140 My sister is..a prey to every bugaboo that ever afflicted a nursing mother, from infantile paralysis downwards.

2004 Times Lit. Suppl. 30 July 9/2 No one apart from Powell, from the President downwards, had seen with any clarity the political difficulties involved in developing an exit-strategy from Iraq.