Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. In India and East Asia, a warehouse, especially one at a dockside.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A draught of liquor.
- n. A cutting in the bank of a stream for enabling animals to cross or to get to the water.
- n. In India, China, Japan, etc., a warehouse or storehouse.
Wiktionary
- n. India, East Africa, Singapore, Malaysia A warehouse.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. East Indies A warehouse.
WordNet 3.0
- v. be recorded or remembered
- v. move downward and lower, but not necessarily all the way
- v. be ingested
- v. be defeated
- v. disappear beyond the horizon
- v. grow smaller
- v. stop operating
- v. go under,
- n. (in India and Malaysia) a warehouse
Etymologies
- From Malay gudang, from Tamil கிடங்கு (kidangu, "store room"). (Wiktionary)
- Alteration (influenced by down1) of Malay godong, probably of Dravidian origin; akin to Kannada gaḍaṅgu, storehouse, godown. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The dumpers were parked in the company's godown, which is manned by security guards.”
“The Sultan has a "godown" containing great treasures, concerning which he leads an anxious life – hoards of diamonds and rubies, and priceless damascened krises, with scabbards of pure gold wrought into marvelous devices and incrusted with precious stones.”
“A short time ago a fine young tiger was brought alive to Captain Shaw, and he ordered a proper cage to be made, in which to send him to England, telling Babu, the "double Hadji," to put it into the "godown" in its bamboo cage; but the man put it into the kitchen, and in the morning the cage was found broken into pieces, the kitchen shutters torn down, and the tiger gone!”
“And then, of course, there are vestigeal words and expressions from British English that continue to be used in Indian English, such as "godown" and "brinjal"; or uniquely Indian formations such as "prepone" (which, by the way, has been admitted conditionally by the most recent editions of some standard British dictionaries).”
“SG: I still want to know, as I asked in another thread, where did the notion come from that if we all pass the bill for our personal health consumption to the person to our left, the total cost will godown.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Crisis, the Health Care Bill, and the Growth of Government
“And perhaps when everyone is treated with respect, the incidences will godown.”
“All of whom would laugh out loud at the idea that revenues “always” go up when tax rates godown.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » The Further Left You Are the Less You Know About Economics:
“If everyone in a population is susceptible to the same kind of attack, then they all godown.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » If you like the BP spill, you’ll love cyberwar
“Mark my word, Clinton wll godown in history as one of the best Pres. we've had in 30 yrs and Bush the Worst since HOOVER.”
“I hate to threaten you, George ~ but you were responsible and signed off on all the executive orders that I (and my war council) drafted and if I get indicted ~you'll godown with me.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘godown’.
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Humours of Old Bombay
Terms that call to mind British India.
palkee, chee-chee, dorian, Hindoo, dinghee-wallah, garee, hamal, banghy, hookah-bardar, dak, ghat, mussalchee and 133 more...
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News of the World
king under the ca..., citrination, melissa-oil, rum shrub, baby boomlet, wikilink, vicriviroc, viral load, petroleur, freedom fine, archemastry, ethnomathematics and 202 more...
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The Aubrey/Maturin List I'm Gonna Mak...
I'm wading through Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels one by one, and someday, I'll wade through them again and list all the words I learned while reading them.
Edit: I started ma...studdingsail, carronade, mumchance, grumlin-futtocks, crosscat-harpings, holystone, sennit, orlop, orchitis, negus, kevel, altumal and 1112 more...
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(more or less) Temporary Urth List
Temporary list is temporary.
Collecting a few words here, which are then to be alloted to other lists.vassal, gnaw, putrescence, liege, pederasty, disseminate, loot, waning, fitful, hiatuse, plow, pious and 292 more...
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urbanorama's Words
dicker, murgatroyd, wheedle, snicker, snuffle, whinge, swag-bellied, fulsome, sozzle, gilly-gaupus, invaginate, cuddy and 13 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for godown.
chained_bear "We did lose ten, not having time to comb through all the bawdy-houses or the backsides of godowns."
--Patrick O'Brian, The Thirteen Gun Salute, 178–179 Mar 4, 2008