Downwell

adj, adv, noun, verb

adj, adv, noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A vertical shaft or well in which water flows downward.

    "The proposed work includes enlarging the basin and installing downwells for percolation."

  2. 2
    Synonym of downwelling.

    "Warm-water eddies are downwells and cold-water eddies facilitate vertical mixing rather than induce upwelling."

Verb
  1. 1
    To sink below material of lower density.

    "Some of the northward-flowing waters turn eastward and enter the Throughflow sponge above 1300 m (Figure 5b), where they downwell and return to the interior and spread both to the south and the north (Figure 5c)."

  2. 2
    To penetrate water downward.

    "This measurement, as Region 4 stated, has been "commonly used to measure marine turbidity; it does not measure downwelling ambient light.""

Adjective
  1. 1
    In the lower part of a well.

    "By measuring downwell and wellhead temperature, wellbore heat losses through the casing to the formation can be measured."

  2. 2
    towards the nearest planet or other gravity well.

    ""[...] spend the two weeks after Translator Dlique's funeral on her estate downwell."

Adverb
  1. 1
    In the lower part of a well.

    "These identification plaques will serve as one aspect of continuing control and are intended to be a long-term indication of a sealed radioactive source downwell."

  2. 2
    toward the nearest planet or other gravity well.

    "To be safe, we'll have to go downwell."

Example

More examples

"Some of the northward-flowing waters turn eastward and enter the Throughflow sponge above 1300 m (Figure 5b), where they downwell and return to the interior and spread both to the south and the north (Figure 5c)."

Etymology

From down- + well.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.