down-home

[ doun-hohm ]

adjective

of, relating to, or exhibiting the simple, familiar, or folksy qualities associated with one's family or with rural areas, especially of the southern U.S.: down-home cooking; down-home hospitality.

Origin of down-home

An Americanism dating back to 1820–30

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use down-home in a sentence

Customers became friends and the down-home feeling created lingered long after they left the store.
‘The Harness Maker’s Dream:’ The Unlikely Ranch King of Texas | Nick Kotz | September 20, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
He stayed with it until it redefined him: switched the label from sophisticated Blues to a down-home sound.
The Stacks: How Leonard Chess Helped Make Muddy Waters | Alex Belth | August 2, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
And, you know, Sarah Palin of course was very straight talking, very down home, and had tremendous appeal because of that.
Scandal’s Lisa Kudrow on Sexism in Politics (and That Epic Rant) | Kevin Fallon | November 14, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
But this is Reese Witherspoon: down-home, girl-next-door, put-together, and, frankly, boring Reese Witherspoon.
Is Reese Witherspoon’s Drunken Arrest the Best Thing to Happen to Her Career? | Kevin Fallon | May 3, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
In the other: the engaging, uncompromising, down-home, self-made 50-year-old Tea Party favorite Schweikert.
Ben Quayle’s Election Fight Gets Ugly | Terry Greene Sterling | August 26, 2012 | THE DAILY BEAST

Aminta nodded and smiled, and Selina kissed her hand in joy, saying, that down home she would not be so shy of calling her Aminta.
Lord Ormont and his Aminta, Complete | George Meredith
Down home, continued Billy, we always kill a chicken when we expect a minister.
Winona of the Camp Fire | Margaret Widdemer
I brought them down home, and nursed him for three months, till he died.
With Wolfe in Canada | G. A. Henty
He wore a grey coat and a high-buttoned vest, with a broad turned-down home-spun collar.
The Precipice | Ivan Goncharov
He was half afraid of the chorus girls, because they seemed such different beings from the nurse girls down home.
The Strength of Gideon and Other Stories | Paul Laurence Dunbar

British Dictionary definitions for down-home

down-home

adjective

slang, mainly US of, relating to, or reminiscent of rural life, esp in the southern US; unsophisticated

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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