Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The first beat of a measure.
- noun The downward stroke made by a conductor to indicate the first beat of a measure.
- adjective Cheerless; pessimistic.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Music) the first beat of a musical measure (as the conductor's arm moves downward).
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun music The
accented beat at the beginning of abar (indicated by a conductor with adownward stroke ) - adjective
sad orpessimistic
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the first beat of a musical measure (as the conductor's arm moves downward)
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Atop lazy swirls of blues riffs, a voice croaks: "It's what you call a downbeat, it's what you call a downbeat."
Wicked French Party Tunes From Band Named Rin������r��se 2000
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Atop lazy swirls of blues riffs, a voice croaks: "It's what you call a downbeat, it's what you call a downbeat."
Wicked French Party Tunes From Band Named Rin������r��se 2000
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They are not "downbeat" -- perhaps even when they should be.
BloggingStocks 2009
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Economists were universally downbeat, which isn't totally surprising.
Slate Magazine 2009
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Economists were universally downbeat, which isn't totally surprising.
Slate Magazine 2009
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"Until last week it did seem that the market was ignoring the 'bad news' factors," such as downbeat economic data and oil-demand forecasts, said Mike Sander, an analyst at Sander Capital Advisors in Seattle.
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Mr. SANDFORD: A lot of cops in fiction are very depressive and are kind of downbeat, and they've got all kinds of existential angst that they're dealing with.
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Mr. SANDFORD: A lot of cops in fiction are very depressive and are kind of downbeat, and they've got all kinds of existential angst that they're dealing with.
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The fifteenth episode of season 3 kicked off the weirdest cycle of episodes in WKRP's run: almost every episode from this one through the end of the season was kind of downbeat and even depressing in spots.
WKRP Episode: "Ask Jennifer" Jaime J. Weinman 2008
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The fifteenth episode of season 3 kicked off the weirdest cycle of episodes in WKRP's run: almost every episode from this one through the end of the season was kind of downbeat and even depressing in spots.
Archive 2008-11-01 Jaime J. Weinman 2008
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