DOWNY (downier, downiest)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: downier    , downiest   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does downy mean? 

• DOWNY (adjective)
  The adjective DOWNY has 2 senses:

1. like down or as soft as down

2. covered with fine soft hairs or down

  Familiarity information: DOWNY used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DOWNY (adjective)

Comparative: downier   
Superlative: downiest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Like down or as soft as down

Synonyms:

downlike; downy; flossy; fluffy

Similar:

soft (yielding readily to pressure or weight)

Derivation:

down (soft fine feathers)

downiness (a light softness)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Covered with fine soft hairs or down

Synonyms:

downy; puberulent; pubescent; sericeous

Context example:

downy milkweed seeds

Similar:

haired; hairy; hirsute (having or covered with hair)

Domain category:

biological science; biology (the science that studies living organisms)

Derivation:

down (fine soft dense hair (as the fine short hair of cattle or deer or the wool of sheep or the undercoat of certain dogs))

downiness (a light softness)

 Context examples 

Fine downy hair that covers the body of a human fetus beginning in the fifth month of gestation; it is usually shed by the ninth month of gestation.

(Lanugo, NCI Thesaurus)

It has an abundant shaggy outer coat with a soft downy undercoat.

(Cairn Terrier, NCI Thesaurus)

Oh, you're a downy fellow, Steerforth, so you are, and I'm another, ain't I?

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I was suddenly, upon turning the corner of a steepish downy field, in the midst of a retired little village between gently rising hills; a small stream before me to be forded, a church standing on a sort of knoll to my right—which church was strikingly large and handsome for the place, and not a gentleman or half a gentleman's house to be seen excepting one—to be presumed the Parsonage—within a stone's throw of the said knoll and church.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)