Adown
adv, prep ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Down, downward; to or in a lower place. archaic, not-comparable
"Thrice did she sink adown."
- 1 Down. archaic
"I fell from one dream into another; found myself wandering through impossible places; […] peering out into the darkness, to catch a sight of a vague figure standing somewhere in the shadow, and looking, with the sun streaming into my eyes and blinding me, adown long white roads filled with a multitude of people […]"
Example
More examples"[S]o / Do these upbear the little world below / Of Education,—Patience, Love, and Hope. / Methinks, I see them group'd in seemly show, / The straiten'd arms upraised, the palms aslope, / And robes that touching as adown they flow, / Distinctly blend, like snow emboss'd in snow."
Etymology
From Middle English adoun, from Old English adūn, earlier ofdūne (“down”), from of dūne (“off the hill”) (compare Latin ad vallum > Old French à val, used in the same way).
More for "adown"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.