i Register
In some senses, downright is marked as figuratively, archaic, obsolete, rare. Watch for register when choosing this word.
adv
Completely, wholly.
He wasn’t just cool to me, he was downright rude.
VVe vvere deſcried, theyle mock vs novv dounright.
Of acts or speech: directly and unambiguously; clearly, plainly.
Ros[alind]. Not true in loue? / Cel[ia]. Yes, vvhen he is in, but I thinke he is not in. / Ros. You haue heard him ſvveare dovvnright he vvas.
VVell, 'tis not my Buſineſs to quarrel vvith her dovvn[-]right.
Straight down; perpendicularly.
Cedentes capilli, heares [hairs] hanging down ryght.
[Y]et there bee other difficulties that impeach their vvorke: for othervvhiles they meet vvith rocks of flint and rags, as vvell in undermining forvvard, as in ſinking pits dovvne right; vvhich they are driven to pierce and cleave through vvith fire and vinegre.
Immediately at that place and time; without delay; altogether, at once, then and there.
This is the ſoul that I vvith preſſer quill / Muſt novv purſue and fall upon dovvn-right, […]
The reading of this Paper put Mrs. Bull in ſuch a Paſſion, that ſhe fell dovvnright into a Fit, and they vvere forc’d to give her a good quantity of the Spirit of Hartſhorn before ſhe recover’d.
adj
Absolute, complete.
For although in that ancient and diffuſed adoration of IdolLs, unto the Prieſts and ſubtiler heads, the vvorſhip perhaps might be ſymbolicall, and as thoſe Images ſome vvay related unto their deities, yet vvas the Idolatry direct and dovvne-right in the people, vvhoſe credulity is illimitable, vvho may be made believe that any thing is God, and may be made believe there is no God at all.
'I ſee his Deſign,' ſaid ſhe, 'for he made dovvnright Love to me Yeſterday Morning; but as I am reſolved never to admit it, I beg your Ladyſhip not to leave us alone together any more,[…]'
Of a person or their behaviour: direct, plain, straightforward; also, of speech: direct and unambiguous; blunt, to the point.
The ſay this Angelo vvas not made by Man and VVoman, after this dovvne-right vvay of Creation: is it true, thinke you?
[Y]our dovvne right Captain ſtill Ile lieve, and ſerve you, […]
Coming straight down; directed vertically.
Downeright ſtroke […] taille
Thoſe perſones, […] be auouched to bee like vnto trees, growyng on the edges or brinkes of clieffes and rockes of a downright pitche, or a ſtiepe down fall: the fruites of whiche trees no man could euer geat a taſte of, but theſame were from time to time, deuoured by the crowes and the rauens.
Chiefly in downright money: in its most basic form; ordinary.
[T]he merchant's wife, next to her who abounds in plenty, is not to have downright money, but the mercenary part of her mind is engaged with a present of plate, and a little ambition.
noun
A low grade of wool from the lower parts of the sides of a fleece.
It is ſaid, there are nine Sorts of VVool contained in one good Fleece, vvhich to make out, they ſay, that there are five Sorts for making Cloth, and four for Combings; a ſuperfine VVool, a head VVool, Dovvnrights, Seconds, and Livery.
A vertical line; a perpendicular, a vertical.
[T]he middle of it [i.e., the thigh, is] the prop or thiller, the body the vveight, and the leg the povver; either of vvhich being brought by a ſharp angle to a dovvnright or perpendicular or more, vvith the thiller, vvill by ſo much leſſen the vveight, from the yielded aſſumption in that mechanick povver, That the point, vvhich is toucht by a perpendicular from the centre of heavineſs, is one of the terms: […]