downer
Informal.
a depressant or sedative drug, especially a barbiturate.
a depressing experience, person, or situation.
Animal Husbandry. an old or diseased animal, especially one that cannot stand up.
Origin of downer
1Words Nearby downer
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use downer in a sentence
Despite Tea’s no-holds-barred stories of these difficulties, “Knocking Myself UP” is far from a downer.
It’s really hard because you don’t want to be the downer when your whole community is based around this idea of stoke.
This can make my time in the outdoors a bit of a bummer or even a real downer.
On the one hand, it’s a relief that Another Round isn’t the bleak downer you think it’s going to be, a story about a man ruined by alcoholism.
Mads Mikkelson Can Do Anything. But He's Stuck in the Boring Oscar-Nominated Another Round | Stephanie Zacharek | March 19, 2021 | TimeStream it on Hulu This quirky and quiet adaptation of Jesse Andrews’ 2012 young adult novel sounds like a real downer.
The Best Teen Rom-Coms to Watch After You Finish the To All the Boys Trilogy | Annabel Gutterman | February 12, 2021 | Time
But—not to be a Debbie downer here—your death and my death are inevitable.
Unlike steroids, which make a guy crazy, HGH is mostly a quality-of-life downer.
Is HGH, Allegedly Alex Rodriguez’s Drug of Choice, Really So Bad? | Kent Sepkowitz | August 1, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTFrance does not like to see it described as an AIDS documentary, which inevitably sounds like something of a downer.
New Documentary ‘How to Survive a Plague’ Details ACT UP’s Heroic Role in AIDS Battle | Stephen Farber | September 26, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTOn top of everything else, I do not want to seem like the Debbie downer in this scenario.
Few political watchers thought Romney would wrap anything up Tuesday, but the returns must still have come as a bit of a downer.
Super Tuesday: Mitt Romney’s Senior Citizen Surge | Michelle Cottle | March 7, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTThe accompanying portrait is from an oil painting in the possession of his grand-daughter, Mrs. Samuel downer, of Dorchester.
Tea Leaves | VariousThere was downer, a little Freshman, white with the excitement of his first public performance.
At Start and Finish | William LindseyHere Dr. Eliphalet downer, in single combat with a soldier, killed him with a bayonet.
“Very well, Jerry downer; you are dismissed,” and he waved Jerry out of the room.
Miss Ashton's New Pupil | Mrs. S. S. RobbinsLast fall I potted some of the downer, and in the winter grew them in the house.
Locusts and Wild Honey | John Burroughs
British Dictionary definitions for downer
/ (ˈdaʊnə) /
Also called: down a barbiturate, tranquillizer, or narcotic: Compare upper
a depressing experience
a state of depression: he's on a downer today
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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