down adj.1
1. first-rate, excellent.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Letter-bag of the Great Western (1873) 143: Keep dark. If you have a rael right down clipper of a horse in your stable, a doing of nothing, couldn’t you jist whip over to Portland on the 20th, to meet me, in your waggon? | |
| Monkey On My Back (1954) 43: Dave was a down cat (a nice guy). | |
| (con. 1953–7) Violent Gang (1967) 62: Having an agency concerned [...] seemed to give it rep in gang circles. As a gang leader once told me: ‘Having a worker makes you a real ‘down’ club.’. | |
| Third Ear n.p.: down adj. agreeable; best ever; favorable; nice. | |
| Clueless [film script] You are a down girl. I’ll call you tomorow. | |
| ‘some men are just funny that way’ in What They Found 79: ‘[T]his was a coaches’ tournament and there were a bunch of down dudes in the action’. |
2. aware, sophisticated, knowledgeable.
| Corner Boy 36: You’re a pretty down ole babe. | |
| Teen-Age Mafia 8: A guy who could take care of himself and hold the line, a real down cat. | |
| I Paid My Dues 142: For the ‘down’ people he had a pound of smoke. | |
| Carlito’s Way 20: He was a down cat and he was connected. | |
| (con. c.1967) Firefight 147: Morris is a down dude [...] Peterson is an asshole. | |
| Iced 101: The coolest, the sexiest, the even-more-down-than-NYC-Blacks from Philadelphia. | |
| Straight Dope [ebook] He said ‘full court’ to remind me I was just a white boy no matter how down I thought I was. |
3. (US black) alert, tough, good in a fight.
 | Beckley Post-Herald (WV) 1 Dec. 7/4: Down — Bad, tough [...] Down kiddie — A tough guy. He doesn’t punk out, he’s not chicken. | |
| Howard Street 74: The only thing you ever had on a young, down stud was a longer length of time to make damn fools outta yourselves. | |
| Gentleman of Leisure 181: Basically he’s a down pimp and [...] he’s gotten himself back together as a pimp. |
4. (US black) loyal, trustworthy.
| Carlito’s Way 59: [I]f some dude come out of the slams or couldn’t make a bail, I was always down. | |
| Fort Apache, The Bronx 121: Toni was a real down Latina, all right, standing out there in the cold taking care of her man. | |
| ‘Ya Better Bring a Gun’ 🎵 But they took control, slingers walk real tall / While real down gangbangers write their set on the wall. | |
| Da Bomb Summer Supplement 5: Down [...] ! 5. To be true to one’s race, nationality, or ethnic group. | |
| Tuff 181: So many niggers I know to be down decent motherfuckers. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
(Irish) a disaster.
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Dublin Mag. July/Sept. 14: Nothing left to them now but the four old cows and the bare little farm. A downblow wouldn’t so much matter if they were big people . |
to assert something in order to make someone look foolish.
| Eng. As We Speak It In Ireland (1979) 250: He downfaced me that he returned the money I lent him, though he never did. | |
| Ulysses 316: As true as I’m drinking this porter if he was at his last gasp he’d try to downface you that dying was living. | |
| Faustus Kelly in ‘Flann O’Brien’ Stories & Plays (1973) 170: I think you’d know how to down-face the bastards and clean up all this dirty jobbery and back-door stuff. | |
| (con. 1940s) Borstal Boy 30: It wouldn’t do [...] to downface the gentleman. |
doctored dice that will always show low numbers.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Cheats IV i: [I] taught you the use of up-hills, down-hills, and petars* (*Note. Terms applicable to false or loaded dice, or to the knavish mode of handling them). | |
| Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Down hills c. Dice that run low. | |
| New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. | |
| , , , | | Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. |
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
| ‘Modern Dict.’ in Sporting Mag. May XVIII 100/1: . | |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |