downy adj.1
1. aware, knowledgeable.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Beppo in London xcix: Why will they stop to have their downy okers Crush’d by the Giffords, Hallams, Lambs, and Crokers? | |
| Westmoreland Gaz. 7 June 1/5: The charleys were too downey to the upshot to grab a poor fishmonger, and let four ‘prime swells’ go free. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Emerald (N.Y.) 16 Oct. 109/1–2: The knowing ones were up, and the downy ones were all fly. | |
| Oliver Twist (1966) 181: So we all are [thieves], down to the dog. And he’s the downiest one of the lot! | |
| ‘The By-Blow of the Jug’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 144: His mammy was downy to every rig, – / Before he could read she made him a prig. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bell’s Life in Sydney 20 Nov. 2/2: Our downey friend, the sporting Joe Mathewsof Wellington, was also choused out of a finniff by my nab. | |
| Paddiana I 232: The cad of a large town [...] is, emphatically, ‘downey.’. | |
| ‘The Cadger’s Ball’ in Musa Pedestris (1896) 148: To Mother Swankey’s snoozing-crib; / Each downey cadger was seen taking / His bit of muslin, or his rib. | |
| Wild Tribes of London 61: That’s Dick – Dick Abott, of the Mint – Downy Dick, we call him; and a knowing card he is too. | |
| Trail of the Serpent 248: I’d hang my grandmother for a sovereign, and the pride of catching her, if she was a downy one. | |
| Hard Cash II 251: Whell, you are a downy one. | |
| Sl. Dict. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Dundee Courier (Scot.) 14 July 7/3: She flew out of the house [...] with a ‘downy-looking’ boy about fourteen. | |
| Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 3: Downey - Fly, cunning, crafty, wide awake. | |
| Adrift in America 55: It is no uncommon thing to see the conductor go along the train and look [...] for such unauthorised travellers. But these birds are too downy to be caught with such chaff. | |
| Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 4 Sept. 2/6: I were copped, Sir, nice & easy, / In a downey way ennuf. | |
| Marvel III:53 5: One gentleman of the ‘downy’ type. | |
| Truth (Perth) 23 July 12/8: Buck swells are them there agents, / Downey shrewdies every one. | |
| First Hundred Thousand (1918) 260: They are a very downy collection of old gentlemen. | |
| Body in the Library (1959) 86: He’s a downy fellow. |
2. fashionable.
| Comic Almanack Mar. 49: A sound, that caused’d his flesh to creep, / Startled him up from his downy bed. | |
 | Courier (Hobart, Tas.) 27 Oct. 3/1: [advert, from UK source] Upper Benjamins, built up a Downey plan either for riding or driving, from 3 couters and a half to a finnuff. | |
| advert in Vulgar Tongue (1857) 45: Upper Benjamins built on a downy plan, a monarch to half a finnuff. | |
| ‘The Chickaleary Cove’ 🎵 Now kool my downy kicksies – the style for me, Built on a plan werry naughty. | |
| Cruel London III 170: Cool, downy cove, who puts side on. |
3. as sense 1, with overtones of criminality.
| Crim.-Con. Gaz. 1 Sept. 24/3: For a time they robbed each other [...] and to this hour the Jew will boast how he queered his downey governor, by selling books marked five shillings for ten, and sacking the difference. | |
| Paul Pry 19 Mar. 1/3: ‘Well, I’m d—d! [...] this beats cock- fighting! You are a downey old dodger’. | |
| Dick Temple I 243: Downy-looking cove, the fair ’un. | |
| Leicester Chron. 28 June 12/5: ‘Downy Jack’ [...] had no difficulties in obrtaining lodgings for Fred. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 27 Oct. 3/3: She and her ‘mother’ (the downiest cove that ever wore petticoats). | |
| Bushranger’s Sweetheart 66: He’s a downright downy card [...] and the sooner you shuffle him off your hands the better. | |
![[SA]](/static/img/flags/sa.png "South Africa") | Burgher Quixote 105: He is a downy old cove. | |
| Dead Man’s Gold in Illus. Police News 27 Feb. 12/2: ‘There will be a coroner’s inquest, and an end of the matter.’ ‘Well, you are uncommon downy, Cutts’. | |
| Truth (Sydney) 29 Jan. 5/3: She were trooly a believer / In this downiest of men. |
4. (UK tramp) sympathetic.
| Advertiser (Adelaide) 25 Oct. 32/8: The ‘gloak’ (beggar) who is ‘quisby’ (broke) and cannot find a ‘downy earwig’ (sympathetic clergyman) is enlightened by cryptic signs of the whereabouts of the nearest ‘dolly shop’ (illegal pawnbroker). |
In derivatives
sophistication, knowingness.
| Sporting Times 28 Feb. 6/5: Ain’t we old Pelicans noted for our downiness? We are downy, ain’t we? |
In compounds
a knowledgeable, artful, aware person.
| Era 10 Aug. 4/2: He, ther downey bird, waz won ov ther victims, and I thout how he’d nap it wen he got home. O, crikey! | |
| Mr Sponge’s Sporting Tour 197: I held office, sir, under the Duke of Downeybird, sir, of Downeybird Castle, sir, in Downeybirdshire, sir. | |
![[Ind]](/static/img/flags/ind.png "India") | Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Sept. 107/2: Being a downy bird he feathereth his nest from any goose that he can pluck. | |
| Paved with Gold 267: The brick house agin the bridge is bene if you can catch the ‘burerk’ (mistress) at home, but the ‘toff’ is a mortal downy bird and fly to everything. | |
| Sportsman 30 Sept. 2/1: Notes on News [...] The old-etablished manufacturing jeweller is a ‘downy card’. | |
| ‘I Am A Downy Bird’ in My Young Wife and I Songster 42: I am a downy bird, / No green in me they see. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Apr. 22/4: Time was, when the Flycards, Downy-birds, and divers other wise men of this land could set an example to the whole world in the way of working up a profitable little bit of land speculation, but to-day there comes a tale from Queensland which shows that [...] we are but babes in the way of business. | |
| ‘The Moral Reformers’ in Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 119: The Head’s a downy bird. [Ibid.] ‘A Little Prep’ 181: ‘Downy old bird!’ said Stalky. | |
| High Window 86: ‘And where were you going to get the money, may I ask?’ ‘Well, I was just talking. This Morningstar is a downy bird. That’s the kind of language he understands.‘. |
see under bit n.1
a knowledgeable, artful, aware, ‘fly’ person.
| Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 70: ‘Downey coves,’ men who are knowing upon ordinary matters. | |
| Pierce Egan’s Life in London 10 July 189/3: The ‘Downy Ones’ were again floored, and the non-favourites proved victorious. | |
| Memoirs (trans. W. McGinn) III 54: I left my house with another secret agent, named Riboulet, a downy cove. | |
| Satirist (London) 21 Apr. 549/3: Captain Gowan is reported to have said that ‘he did not think Mr. Grant could have been wide awake.’ We can assure the gallant Captain, on the contrary, that the right hon. gentleman is a downy cove. | |
| Sixteen String Jack II iv: Tom Bullock, the downiest cove, the leary one that never goes to sleep. | |
| It Is Never Too Late to Mend II 280: This was one of your downy coves that are up to every move. | |
| Punch XXXVIII 230: You never come across A cove more downier, I’ll be bound, But you knows that ’ere ’oss. | |
| ‘Who’ll Stroke My Cat?’ in Rakish Rhymer (1917) 70: A blowen I am, and as flash can be, / And downey’s the cove who can e’er bilk me. | |
| Holmes Co. Republican (OH) 18 Jan. 1/4: Old Levy Samuel Davis of Clothiers Alley, St Bartholomew’s, Smithfield [...] was as ‘downey a cove’ [...] as you could find in three kingdoms. | |
| Bushrangers 308: Cuss yer for a downey cove. | |
| Dick Temple n.p.: Downy-looking Cove, the fair ’un; a mug like that ought to be worth a fortune to him [F&H]. | |
| Leicester Chron. 12 Feb. 9/3: Wasn’t it the same chap spotted Paddy as knowed me? [...] he must be a downey cove. | |
| Ft Worth Dly Gaz. (TX) 17 Oct. 6/1: The ‘downey cove’ made the major portion of his money by trading horses. | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 25: Downy Cove, a knowing sharper. | |
| Vultures of the City in Illus. Police News 12 Jan. 12/4: If ever you show up again in Paris, act the downy cove, or [...] you may be kissed by the headsman’s daughter and spit in the basket. |
(UK tramp) a sympathetic listener.
| Tramping with Tramps 212: a sympathetic person. |