Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One living “down east” from the speaker: sometimes applied to New Englanders generally, but specifically to the inhabitants of Maine.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • This was a supposition first made in the Portland cars, when I was at a loss to know what distinguishing and palpable peculiarity marked me as a “down-easter.”

    The Englishwoman in America 2007

  • The worthy down-easter buttoned his coat more tightly around him, and, looking up to the moon, replied, "It's a whistler, captain; and nothing can live comfortably out of blankets to-night."

    Sanders' Union Fourth Reader Charles W. Sanders

  • Slave-dealers he discovered were as great adepts at deception in the sale of their commodity as the most knowing down-easter, or tricky horse dealer.

    Three Years in Europe Places I Have Seen and People I Have Met William Wells Brown

  • We have let economy take root and spread among us as rank as the crabgrass which sprung from Sherman's cavalry camps, until we are ready to lay odds on the Georgia Yankee, as he manufactures relics of the battlefield in a one-story shanty and squeezes pure olive oil out of his cotton seed, against any down-easter that ever swapped wooden nutmegs for flannel sausages in the valleys of Vermont.

    America First Patriotic Readings Jasper Leonidas McBrien

  • My quaint down-easter, He who lashes the seas into fury, and lets loose the tempest, will care for thee!

    Sanders' Union Fourth Reader Charles W. Sanders

  • The worthy down-easter buttoned his coat more tightly around him, and looking up to the moon replied, "It's a whistler, Captain; and 15 nothing can live comfortably out of blankets to-night."

    Story Hour Readings: Seventh Year 1923

  • We have let economy take root and spread among us as rank as the crab-grass which sprung from Sherman's cavalry camps, until we are ready to lay odds on the Georgia Yankee as he manufactures relics of the battlefield in a one-story shanty and squeezes pure olive-oil out of his cotton-seed, against any down-easter that ever swapped wooden nutmegs for flannel sausage in the valleys of Vermont.

    Southern Prose and Poetry for Schools 1910

  • Interesting compatriots came from time to time on various errands, and I was glad to see them; but one whose visits were most heartily welcomed was a former consul, Mr. Prince, an original, shrewd ` ` down-easter, '' and his reminiscences of some of my predecessors were full of interest to me.

    [Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White 1906

  • With his hands thrust deep into his pockets, the down-easter stood on the sidewalk and stared after Silence until the man turned a corner and disappeared.

    Frank Merriwell's Son A Chip Off the Old Block Burt L. Standish 1905

  • The man on my left is a down-easter with a liver which has struck work; looks like a human pumpkin; and how he contrives to whittle jackstraws all day, and eat as he does, I can't understand.

    The Autobiography of a Quack 1899

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