downbeat

[doun-beet]

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noun Music.

the downward stroke of a conductor's arm or baton indicating the first or accented beat of a measure.

the first beat of a measure.

adjective

gloomy or depressing; pessimistic: Hollywood movies seldom have downbeat endings.

Origin of downbeat

1875–80; down¹ + beat (noun)

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for downbeat

negative, defeatist, cheerless, dejected, dispirited, gloomy, hopeless, unhappy, unhopeful

Examples from the Web for downbeat

Contemporary Examples of downbeat

Why did the Russian Ministry of Culture help to finance such a downbeat portrait of contemporary Russia?
Inside ‘Leviathan’: Russian Filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Award-Winning Anti-Putin Cannes Film
Richard Porton
May 27, 2014
Most affecting is his romance with a cute, downbeat girl inmate named Andrea.
Must-Read Debuts
Taylor Antrim
October 22, 2010
Full of lively, comic storytelling and resonant in theme—youth ends; how sad—it casts a downbeat and very of-the-moment mood.
Gen-X's Midlife Crisis Continues
Taylor Antrim
July 12, 2010
Stanley Crouch's culture pieces have appeared in Harper's, The New York Times, Vogue, Downbeat, the New Yorker, and more.
Ladies’ Night
Stanley Crouch
March 29, 2009
Stanley Crouch's culture pieces have appeared in Harper's, the New York Times, Vogue, Downbeat, the New Yorker, and more.
White House Race War
Stanley Crouch
February 27, 2009

British Dictionary definitions for downbeat

downbeat

noun

music the first beat of a bar or the downward gesture of a conductor's baton indicating thisCompare upbeat

adjective

informal depressed; gloomy

informal relaxed; unemphatic

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

Word Origin and History for downbeat

1876 (n.), in reference to downward stroke of a conductor's baton; 1952 (adj.) in figurative sense of "pessimistic," but that is probably via associations of the word down (adv.), because the beat itself is no more pessimistic than the upbeat is optimistic.