View synonyms for downer

downer

[ dou-ner ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

Informal.
1. a depressant or sedative drug, especially a barbiturate.
2. a depressing experience, person, or situation.
Animal Husbandry. an old or diseased animal, especially one that cannot stand up.

downer

/ ˈdaʊnə /

Origin of downer¹

1910–15, Americanism, for an earlier sense; 1965–70, downer fordef 1; down ¹ + -er ¹

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.

From Time

Stream it on Hulu This quirky and quiet adaptation of Jesse Andrews’ 2012 young adult novel sounds like a real downer.

From 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.

France does not like to see it described as an AIDS documentary, which inevitably sounds like something of a downer.

On 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.

The accompanying portrait is from an oil painting in the possession of his grand-daughter, Mrs. Samuel Downer, of Dorchester.

There was Downer, a little Freshman, white with the excitement of his first public performance.

Here 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.

Last fall I potted some of the Downer, and in the winter grew them in the house.

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