Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Made of or covered with down.
- adjective Resembling down.
- adjective Quietly soothing; soft.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Having downs; containing downs.
- Covered with down or nap.
- Having the character or structure of down; resembling down: as, downy plumage.
- Made of down or soft feathers.
- Soft; soothing; calm.
- Knowing; cunning: as, a downy cove.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Covered with down, or with pubescence or soft hairs.
- adjective Made of, or resembling, down. Hence, figuratively: Soft; placid; soothing; quiet.
- adjective Slang, Eng. Cunning; wary.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Having
down , covered with a soft fuzzy coating as of small feathers.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective like down or as soft as down
- adjective covered with fine soft hairs or down
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Benelli's UltraLight 12 gauge was the last word in downy-light autoloaders - until now.
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The men share the troubles of nursing with the women, and the babies, tied on their mother's or father's back, seem as content as if they were rocked in downy cradles.
Six Months in Mexico 1888
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The latter two are almost counterparts of each other, although the downy is the more common.
The Log of the Sun A Chronicle of Nature's Year William Beebe 1919
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The timing corresponds with the formation of spores in a funguslike pathogen that attacks the plant and results in a condition known as downy mildew disease.
NYT > Home Page By SINDYA N. BHANOO 2011
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Stingless bees can mummify invading beetles in resin scientists have found that stingless bees are not easy targets for predators, as they can mummify invading parasitic beetles in The Salt Lake TribuneUpdated: 12/21/2009 12: 27: 04 PM MST Downy woodpecker by Paul Higgins Picoides pubescens The downy is the smallest and most widespread of American
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It's called downy mildew, an aggressive new disease that has wiped out basil crops in parts of the U.S. and was recently spotted in Ontario.
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A potentially fatal fungal disease called downy mildew has been attacking basil plants in
NPR Topics: News 2010
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A potentially fatal fungal disease called downy mildew has been attacking basil plants in
NPR Topics: News 2010
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Common diseases of sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) such as downy mildew, septoria leaf spot, rust and sclerotinia wilt are regarded as potential problems.
Chapter 20 1987
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I can only say that at sundown we passed out of the Rebel lines, and at ten o'clock that night stretched our tired limbs on the "downy" cots in General
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 83, September, 1864 Various
madmouth commented on the word downy
wiki: "Often overlooked, downy spells its name with a lower-case "D". This helps to distinguish it from like-named bands, such as Downy Mildew."
March 19, 2010