Down vs Back - What's the difference?
down | back |
Hill, rolling grassland
* 1610 , , act 4 scene 1
* Ray
* Tennyson
(usually plural) Field, especially for racing.
(UK, mostly, in the plural) A tract of poor, sandy, undulating or hilly land near the sea, covered with fine turf which serves chiefly for the grazing of sheep.
* Sandys
A road for shipping in the English Channel or Straits of Dover, near Deal, employed as a naval rendezvous in time of war.
* Cook (First Voyage)
(lb) From a higher position to a lower one; downwards.
*
* , chapter=6
, title= (lb) At a lower place or position.
South (as south is at the bottom of typical maps).
(lb) Away from the city (even if the location is to the North).
Into a state of non-operation.
(lb) The direction leading away from the principal terminus, away from milepost zero.
(lb) Get down.
Away from Oxford or Cambridge.
From a remoter or higher antiquity.
* (and other bibliograpic details) (Daniel Webster)
From a greater to a less bulk, or from a thinner to a thicker consistence.
From less to greater detail.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= (lb)
From the higher end to the lower of.
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5
, passage=We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine. We passed on the way the van of the guests from Asquith.}}
From one end to another of.
Depressed, feeling low.
On a lower level than before.
Having a lower score than an opponent.
(baseball, colloquial, following the noun modified) Out.
(colloquial) With "on", negative about, hostile to
(not comparable, US, slang) Relaxed about, accepting of.
(not comparable) Inoperable; out of order; out of service.
Finished]] (of a task); defeated or [[deal with, dealt with (of an opponent or obstacle); elapsed (of time). Often coupled with to go (remaining).
(not comparable, military, police, slang, of a person) Wounded and unable to move normally; killed.
(not comparable, military, aviation, slang, of an aircraft) Mechanically failed, collided, shot down, or otherwise suddenly unable to fly.
Thoroughly practiced, learned or memorised; mastered.
* 2013 , P.J. Hoover, Solstice , (ISBN 0765334690), page 355:
(obsolete) Downright; absolute; positive.
To drink or swallow, especially without stopping before the vessel containing the liquid is empty.
To cause to come down; to knock down or subdue.
* Sir Philip Sidney
* Madame D'Arblay
(pocket billiards) To put a ball in a pocket; to pot a ball.
(American football) To bring a play to an end by touching the ball to the ground or while it is on the ground.
To write off; to make fun of.
(obsolete) To go down; to descend.
a negative aspect; a downer.
(dated) A grudge ((on) someone).
* 1974 , (GB Edwards), The Book of Ebenezer Le Page , New York 2007, p. 10:
An act of swallowing an entire drink in one.
(American football) A single play, from the time the ball is snapped (the start) to the time the whistle is blown (the end) when the ball is down'', or ''is downed .
(crosswords) A clue whose solution runs vertically in the grid.
An downstairs room of a two story house.
down payment
Soft, fluffy immature feathers which grow on young birds. Used as insulating material in duvets, sleeping bags and jackets.
(botany) The pubescence of plants; the hairy crown or envelope of the seeds of certain plants, such as the thistle.
The soft hair of the face when beginning to appear.
* Dryden
That which is made of down, as a bed or pillow; that which affords ease and repose, like a bed of down.
* Tennyson
* Southern
(not comparable) Near the rear.
* , chapter=19
, title= (not comparable) Not current.
(not comparable) Far from the main area.
In arrear; overdue.
Moving or operating backward.
(comparable, phonetics) Produced in the back of the mouth.
(not comparable) To or in a previous condition or place.
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=2
, passage=We drove back to the office with some concern on my part at the prospect of so large a case. Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.}}
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=52, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= Away from the front or from an edge.
* , chapter=1
, title= In a manner that impedes.
In a reciprocal manner.
The rear of the body, especially the part between the neck and the end of the spine and opposite the chest and belly.
:
*
*:It was not far from the house; but the ground sank into a depression there, and the ridge of it behind shut out everything except just the roof of the tallest hayrick. As one sat on the sward behind the elm, with the back turned on the rick and nothing in front but the tall elms and the oaks in the other hedge, it was quite easy to fancy it the verge of the prairie with the backwoods close by.
#The spine and associated tissues.
#:
# Large and attractive buttocks.
#*{{quote-book, 2002, (George Pelecanos), title=
, passage= He got his hand on her behind and caressed her firm, ample flesh.
#(lb) The part of a piece of clothing which covers the back.
#:
#The backrest, the part of a piece of furniture which receives the human back.
#:
#(lb) That part of the body that bears clothing.
#*{{quote-book, 1604, (William Shakespeare),
, passage=Do thou but think / What 'tis to cram a maw or clothe a back / From such a filthy vice}}
That which is farthest away from the front.
:
#The side of any object which is opposite the front or useful side.
#:
##The edge of a book which is bound.
##:
##(lb) The inside margin of a page.
##*, page=472, edition=1965 Ayer Publishing ed., title=
, passage=Convenience and custom have familiarised us to the printed page being a little higher than the middle of the leaf, and to its having a little more margin at the fore edge than in the back .}}
##The side of a blade opposite the side used for cutting.
##:
#The reverse side; the side that is not normally seen.
#:
#Area behind, such as the backyard of a house.
#:
#The part of something that goes last.
#:
#(lb) In some team sports, a position behind most players on the team.
#:
#*{{quote-news, year=2010, date=December 28, author=Kevin Darlin, work=BBC
, title= (lb) Upper part of a natural object which is considered to resemble an animal's back.
:
A support or resource in reserve.
*(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
*:This project / Should have a back or second, that might hold, / If this should blast in proof.
(lb) The keel and keelson of a ship.
:
(lb) The roof of a horizontal underground passage.
*{{quote-book, 1911, Robert Bruce Brinsmade, title=
, passage=The stope is kept full of broken ore, sufficient only being drawn to leave a working space between the floor of broken ore and the back of the stope.}}
Effort, usually physical.
:
A non-alcoholic drink (often water or a soft drink), to go with hard liquor or a cocktail.
:
Among leather dealers, one of the thickest and stoutest tanned hides.
*1848 , Maine Supreme Judicial Court, Maine Reports (volume 6, page 397)
*:.
To go in the reverse direction.
* , chapter=1
, title= To support.
* {{quote-news, year=2012, date=June 9, author=Owen Phillips, work=BBC Sport
, title= (nautical, of the wind) To change direction contrary to the normal pattern; that is, to shift anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere, or clockwise in the southern hemisphere.
(nautical, of a square sail) To brace the yards so that the wind presses on the front of the sail, to slow the ship.
(nautical, of an anchor) To lay out a second, smaller anchor to provide additional holding power.
(UK, of a hunting dog) To stand still behind another dog which has pointed.
To push or force backwards.
(obsolete) To get upon the back of; to mount.
* (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
(obsolete) To place or seat upon the back.
* (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
To make a back for; to furnish with a back.
To adjoin behind; to be at the back of.
* (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
* (Thomas Henry Huxley) (1825-1895)
*
*:So this was my future home, I thought!Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.
To write upon the back of, possibly as an endorsement.
(legal, of a justice of the peace) To sign or endorse (a warrant, issued in another county, to apprehend an offender).
To row backward with (oars).
A large shallow vat; a cistern, tub, or trough, used by brewers, distillers, dyers, picklers, gluemakers, and others, for mixing or cooling wort, holding water, hot glue, etc.
A ferryboat.
As a proper noun down
is one of the counties of northern ireland.As a noun back is
a small stream or brook.down
English
(wikipedia down)Etymology 1
(etyl) doun, from (etyl) , from British Celtic dunon'' 'hill; hillfort' (compare Welsh ''din'' 'hill', Irish ''dún'' 'hill, fort'), from (etyl) *''dheue'' or ''dhwene . More at (town); akin to (dune).Noun
- Churchill Downs', Upson '''Downs (from ''Auntie Mame , by Patrick Dennis).
- And with each end of thy blue bow dost crown
- My bosky acres and my unshrubb'd down
- Hills afford prospects, as they must needs acknowledge who have been on the downs of Sussex.
- She went by dale, and she went by down .
- Seven thousand broad-tailed sheep grazed on his downs .
- On the 11th [June, 1771] we run up the channel at noon we were abreast of Dover, and about three came to an anchor in the Downs , and went ashore at Deal.
Etymology 2
(etyl) .Adverb
- It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street. He wore shepherd's plaid trousers and the swallow-tail coat of the day, with a figured muslin cravat wound about his wide-spread collar.
Mr. Pratt's Patients, passage=She was so mad she wouldn't speak to me for quite a spell, but at last I coaxed her into going up to Miss Emmeline's room and fetching down a tintype of the missing Deacon man.}}
- Venerable men! you have come down to us from a former generation.
- (Arbuthnot)
Boundary problems, passage=Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory. Its apparent simplicity explains why it is scrutinised down to tenths of a percentage point every month.}}
Usage notes
* Down' can be used with verbs in ways that change the meaning of the verb in ways not entirely predictable from the meanings of the ' down and the verb, though related to them. See .Antonyms
* (From a higher position to a lower one) up * (At a lower place) up * up * (Into a state of non-operation) up * upPreposition
(English prepositions)Antonyms
* (From the higher end to the lower) upDerived terms
* (from the higher end to the lower) sell down the riverAdjective
(en adjective)- So, things got you down ? / Is Rodney Dangerfield giving you no respect? / Well, bunky, cheer up!
- The stock market is down .
- Prices are down .
- They are down by 3-0 with just 5 minutes to play.
- He was down by a bishop and a pawn after 15 moves.
- At 5-1 down , she produced a great comeback to win the set on a tiebreak.
- Two down and one to go in the bottom of the ninth.
- Ever since Nixon, I've been down on Republicans.
- Are you down to hang out at the mall, Jamal?
- As long as you're down with helping me pick a phone, Tyrone.
- ''The system is down .
- Two down and three to go. (Two tasks completed and three more still to be done.)
- Ten minutes down and nothing's happened yet.
- We have an officer down outside the suspect's house.
- There are three soldiers down and one walking wounded.
- We have a chopper down near the river .
- It's two weeks until opening night and our lines are still not down yet.
- I stay with Chloe the longest. When she's not hanging out at the beach parties, she lives in a Japanese garden complete with an arched bridge spanning a pond filled with koi of varying sizes and shapes. Reeds shoot out of the water, rustling when the fish swim through them, and river-washed stones are sprinkled in a bed of sand. Chloe has this whole new Japanese thing down .
- a down denial
- (Beaumont and Fletcher)
Antonyms
* (Depressed) up * (On a lower level) up * (Having a lower score) up * (Inoperable) upVerb
(en verb)- He downed an ale and ordered another.
- The storm downed several old trees along the highway.
- To down proud hearts.
- I remember how you downed Beauclerk and Hamilton, the wits, once at our house.
- He downed two balls on the break.
- He downed it at the seven-yard line.
- (John Locke)
Synonyms
* (drink) See alsoNoun
(en noun)- I love almost everything about my job. The only down is that I can't take Saturdays off.
- She had a down on me. I don't know what for, I'm sure; because I never said a word.
- I bet after the third down , the kicker will replace the quarterback on the field.
- I haven't solved 12 or 13 across, but I've got most of the downs .
- She lives in a two-up two-down .
Derived terms
* down and out * down at heel * down for the count * down in the dumps * down in the mouth * down memory lane * down on one's luck * down payment * down pat * downed (US and Canadian football) * downer * down to the short strokes * first down (US and Canadian football) * fourth down (US football) * second down (US and Canadian football) * third down (US and Canadian football) * top-down * upside downReferences
* Andrea Tyler and Vyvyan Evans, "Spatial particles of orientation", in The Semantics of English Prepositions: Spatial Scenes, Embodied Meaning and Cognition , Cambridge University Press, 2003, 0-521-81430 8Etymology 3
From (etyl) .Noun
- The first down begins to shade his face.
- When in the down I sink my head, / Sleep, Death's twin brother, times my breath.
- Thou bosom softness, down of all my cares!
Statistics
* 100 English basic words English locatives English intensifiers 1000 English basic words ----back
English
(wikipedia back)Etymology 1
(etyl) bak, from (etyl) 'bending'. The adverb represents an aphetic form of (aback).Adjective
(en adjective)The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.}}
- back rent
- back action
Synonyms
* (near the rear) rear * (not current) former, previous * (far from the main area) remoteAntonyms
* (near the rear) front * (not current) current * (far from the main area) mainAdverb
(further)The new masters and commanders, passage=From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much. Those entering it are greeted by wire fences, walls dating back to colonial times and security posts. For mariners leaving the port after lonely nights on the high seas, the delights of the B52 Night Club and Stallion Pub lie a stumble away.}}
Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path […]. It twisted and turned,
Noun
(en noun)Right as Rain: A Novel, isbn=0446610798, page=123
A Dictionary of the Art of Printing, isbn=0833731289
West Brom 1-3 Blackburn, passage=
Mining Without Timber, page=161
Synonyms
* (side opposite the visible side) reverse * (rear of the body) rear, backsideAntonyms
* (side opposite the front or useful side) front * (that which is farthest away from the front) frontCoordinate terms
* (non-alcoholic drink)Derived terms
* (non-alcoholic drink)Verb
(en verb)Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’
Euro 2012: Netherlands 0-1 Denmark, passage=And Netherlands, backed by a typically noisy and colourful travelling support, started the second period in blistering fashion and could have had four goals within 10 minutes}}
- to back oxen
- I will back him [a horse] straight.
- Great Jupiter, upon his eagle backed , / Appeared to me.
- to back books
- a gardenwith a vineyard backed
- the chalk cliffs which back the beach
- to back''' a letter; to '''back a note or legal document
- to back the oars