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downer

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downer¹

  • /ˈdaʊnə/ UK
  • /ˈdaʊnɚ/ US

Rhymes with -aʊnə(ɹ)

noun downers

  1. slang A negative drug trip. Normally those pills give me a boost, but last night they gave me a downer.
  2. slang Any drug that has depressant qualities. Eye Girl is very moody. She is always zooted up on some really foul combination of uppers and downers and Rollerblading. Her bouts of Rollerblading seem to coincide with fights with Eye Guy.

    Opposite: upper

  3. slang Something or someone disagreeable, dispiriting or depressing; a killjoy. You don't really need to know me. I'm kind of a downer.

    Similar: buzzkill

  4. A livestock animal that has collapsed. 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.
  5. A form of industrial action in which workers down tools and refuse to work. In the Workplace Industrial Relations Survey, a strike may be a downer or a stoppage as defined by the Department.

Similar: killjoy, spoilsport

downer²

  • /ˈdaʊnə/ UK
  • /ˈdaʊnɚ/ US

Rhymes with -aʊnə(ɹ)

Where it comes from

Perhaps related to tanner (“sixpence”).

noun downers

  1. UK, obsolete, slang A sixpence. 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.

Downer³

proper noun

  1. A surname.
  2. A suburb of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia, named after John Downer.
  3. An unincorporated community in Clay County, Minnesota, United States.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: sedative, depressant, sedative drug, donner, tranquilliser, tranquilizer, painkiller, tanner, donald, milwaukee, down, comedown, dump, demmie, downgoing, downtown

noun

Similar: killjoy, spoilsport

Translations

Every language

noun drug

DeutschDowner

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Cite this
MLA

"downer." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/downer. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

downer. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/downer

Chicago

"downer." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/downer.

BibTeX
@misc{downer_2026,
  title = {downer},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/downer},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}