Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Slang A depressant or sedative drug, such as a barbiturate or tranquilizer.
- n. Slang One that depresses, such as an experience or person.
Wiktionary
- n. A negative drug trip.
- n. A drug that has depressive qualities.
- n. Something or someone disagreeable, dispiriting or depressing; a killjoy
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. a drug that reduces excitability and calms a person.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a drug that reduces excitability and calms a person
Examples
“And they identified it because the cow was what they call a downer cow.”
“Because this is an older beef cow, and it was what they call a downer cow, meaning it couldn't walk and meat from downer cows is not used in the human food supply.”
“And it is our standard operating procedure that what they call downer animals will be tested if they come to the slaughter facility as a downer animal.”
“There are other problems with pacing (that whole loony inflatable life raft scene), but "Willie" is the main downer for the whole movie.”
Ken's Nostalgic Indiana Jones Adventure - Part 2! « FirstShowing.net
“To label [Béla] Tarr, co-subject of this week's micro-retro at the Harvard Film Archive, as a downer is merely a philistine's impatient way of saying he's an existentialist, a modern-film Dostoyevsky-Beckett with a distinctly Hungarian taste for suicidal depression, morose self-amusement, and bile," writes Michael Atkinson.”
“The only downer is that they appear to be on the nights Ted seems to most often (though not really predictably) have off.”
“The downer is that you need to be a goofy Hyperspace member to check it out online otherwise scroll down the page past all the nerdy posts to see US airtimes.”
“You’ve got to find a way to signal to the reader that this self-loathing, nihilistic downer is nevertheless a human worth caring about.”
Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » INTERVIEW: Donald Maass, Part 2
“Industry calls the downer cow video an anomaly though that doesn't explain the all too regular recalls across the factory food industry, does it?”
Former FDA official: "We are fortunate more hasn't gone wrong"
“It alters current rules that allow so-called downer cows with treatable conditions to receive veterinary care and then be slaughtered for meat.”
The Huffington Post: Slaughterhouses Must Euthanize Downer Cows, USDA Says
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘downer’.
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Cattle
cattle, cow, beef, steer, heifer, calf, bull, cattle call, Black Angus, Hereford, Holstein, Dwarf Lulu and 376 more...
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no. 2
lethargic, draining, bane of one's life, hectic, mission, downer, annoying, a pain in the pro..., proverbial, stressful, not ideal, debilitating and 20 more...
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people (bad)
nouns for bad people / words that describe bad people.
goto the good people list
( people, character, descriptor, noun )culprit, perpetrator, tormentor, swindler, bamboozler, nincompoop, thief, liar, back stabber, vandal, burglar, cheater and 85 more...

bilby A town in Clay County, Minnesota, USA. If you're having a bad week, perhaps this is not the place for your weekend getaway. Jan 4, 2008