downer

See also: Downer

English

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈdaʊnə/
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈdaʊnɚ/
Audio (AU) (file)
Rhymes: -aʊnə(ɹ)

Etymology 1

down +‎ -er

Noun

downer (plural downers)

(slang) A negative drug trip.
Normally those pills give me a boost, but last night they gave me a downer.
(slang) A drug that has depressant qualities.
(slang) Something or someone disagreeable, dispiriting or depressing; a killjoy.
- 2009, Spike Jonze, Where the Wild Things Are
  You don't really need to know me. I'm kind of a downer.
- 2010, Nicole LaPorte, The Men Who Would Be King
  Geffen had never understood why such a downer of a film was being released over the holidays.
A livestock animal that has collapsed.
- 1964, John Hendrix, If I Can Do It Horseback: A Cow-Country Sketchbook, page 40:
  The ten-dollar bill was for eating money and the prod pole to be used when the train stopped for water in getting "downers" back on their feet.
- 2009, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies, Hallmark/Westland Meat Recall:
  In 1993, Farm Sanctuary produced undercover footage of downers being lifted by forklift at Hallmark, prompting introduction of a California downer cattle law the next year. Either management provided instructions to get the downers moving or was asleep at the wheel and let employees run wild — in either case, it's an indictment of management.
- 2009, Meat & Poultry - Volume 55, Issues 7-12, page lxxii:
  The two plants where I saw great reductions in downers have reduced, but not eliminated Paylean use.
A form of industrial action in which workers down tools and refuse to work.
- 1978, C. T. B. Smith, Great Britain. Dept. of Employment, Manpower Papers (issue 15, page 158)
  In the Workplace Industrial Relations Survey, a strike may be a downer or a stoppage as defined by the Department.
- 1985, Alex Callinicos, Mike Simons, The Great Strike: The Miners' Strike of 1984-5 and Its Lessons
  Cowley experienced a rash of 'downers' — short, sharp, unofficial strikes.
(UK, slang, obsolete) A sixpence.
- 1859, Snowden's magistrates assistant (page 90)
  The price of a case (five shillings piece bad) from the smasher is about one shilling; an alderman (two and sixpence) about sixpence; a peg (shilling) about threepence; a downer or sprat (sixpence) about twopence.

Synonyms

(something or someone disagreeable): buzzkill, killjoy, spoilsport; see also Thesaurus:spoilsport

Related terms

sit-downer

Descendants

German: Downer

Translations

drug

Bulgarian: успокоително (bg) n (uspokoitelno)
German: Downer (de) m
Swedish: nedåttjack n

Etymology 2

Perhaps related to tanner (“sixpence”).

Noun

downer (plural downers)

(UK, slang, obsolete) A sixpence.

References

1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary

Anagrams

Nedrow, Rowden, Wonder, Worden, red won, wonder, wondre

German

Adjective

downer

inflection of down:
1. strong/mixed nominative masculine singular
2. strong genitive/dative feminine singular
3. strong genitive plural