downstate

[doun-steyt, doun-steyt]

noun

1. the southern part of a U.S. state.

adjective

1. located in or characteristic of this part.

   The downstate precincts reported early.

adverb

1. in, to, or into the downstate area.

   We're going downstate for the holidays.

downstate

/ ˈdaʊnˌsteɪt /

adjective

1. in, or relating to the part of the state away from large cities, esp the southern part

adverb

1. towards the southern part of a state

noun

1. the southern part of a state

Other Word Forms

• downstater noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of downstate¹

An Americanism dating back to 1905–10; down ¹ + state

Example Sentences

Downstate parents wondering what’s ahead are warned: It won’t be higher test scores.

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The three remaining contenders for New York’s downstate casino licenses submitted supplemental applications to the New York State Gaming Facility Location Board on Tuesday.

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State regulators have been conducting a competitive bid process for up to three downstate licenses.

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The second half of Xenarios’s career was increasingly focused on lobbying, brokering top-down changes with New York state lawmakers in Albany and founding the Downstate Coalition for Crime Victims, unifying the outreach of roughly a hundred groups doing related work.

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After Downstate Correctional Facility closed in 2022, the massive job of holding and transporting hundreds of incarcerated people to prisons across the state was crammed into a single roach-and-rat-infested cell block in Green Haven, a maximum-security prison located in a rural town called Stormville.

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