Downy

//ˈdaʊni// adj, noun, slang

adj, noun, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A blanket filled with down; a duvet.

    "Went to bed with 2 downies on the bed, but the heat finally kicked in and ended with one cover and my feet sticking out."

  2. 2
    A bed. dated, slang

    "to do the downy (i.e. lie in bed)"

Adjective
  1. 1
    Having down, covered with a soft fuzzy coating as of small feathers or hair.

    "The chick's downy coat of feathers formed almost immediately to keep it warm."

  2. 2
    Sharp-witted, perceptive. dated, slang

    "The right hon. Gentleman has much more claim to the adjective downy than I have, but he really cannot catch me with that one."

  3. 3
    Low-spirited; down in the mouth. Norfolk, UK
Adjective
  1. 1
    covered with fine soft hairs or down wordnet
  2. 2
    like down or as soft as down wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
airyartfulastuteattenuateattenuatedbubbly

Example

More examples

"His plan was successful, and many wild birds visited his bird feeder. He recalls seeing downy woodpeckers, northern cardinals, mourning doves, and other birds."

Etymology

From down + -y.

Related phrases

downy birchdowny mildewdowny oakdowny rattlesnakedowny willowdowny woodpecker

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