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downbeat

[ doun-beet ]
/ ˈdaʊnˌbit /
|
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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.

RELATED WORDS

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

Nearby words

  1. down-home,
  2. down-low,
  3. down-market,
  4. down-the-line,
  5. down-to-earth,
  6. downburst,
  7. downcast,
  8. downcastly,
  9. downcome,
  10. downcomer

Origin of downbeat

1875–80; down1 + beat (noun)
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for downbeat

British Dictionary definitions for downbeat

downbeat

/ (ˈdaʊnˌbiːt) /

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

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.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper