downland

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word downland. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word downland, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say downland in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word downland you have here. The definition of the word downland will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofdownland, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

Typical downland in Wiltshire, UK
Commons:Category
Commons:Category
Wikimedia Commons has more media related to:

Etymology

From down +‎ land.

Noun

downland (plural downlands)

  1. (UK) An area of rolling hills (downs), often grassy pasture over chalk or limestone.
    • 1789, Ann Ward Radcliffe, chapter 4, in The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne, London: T. Hookham, page 93:
      Hail! every distant hill, and downland plain!
      Your dew-hid beauties Fancy oft unveils;
    • 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, , published 1850, →OCLC:
      [] I walked on to Canterbury early in the morning. It was now winter again; and the fresh, cold windy day, and the sweeping downland, brightened up my hopes a little.
    • 1898, Thomas Hardy, “My Cicely”, in Wessex Poems and Other Verses, New York: Harper, page 126:
      I traversed the downland
      Whereon the bleak hill-graves of Chieftains
      Bulge barren of tree;
    • 1946 July and August, K. Westcott Jones, “Isle of Wight Central Railway—2”, in Railway Magazine, page 244:
      Shortly after leaving Godshill, a lengthy climb begins through rolling downland country at 1 in 75, easing to 1 in 103.
    • 1953 February, H. A. Vallance, “To Brighton through the Shoreham Gap”, in Railway Magazine, page 82:
      The large cement works nearby are served by sidings, and strike a sudden jarring industrial note in the midst of the rural downland scene.
    • 1958, Muriel Spark, chapter 6, in Robinson, New York: New Directions, published 2003, page 66:
      I was surprised to see that the plane had been wrecked, not on one of the hefty cliff faces of our mountain, but on a gentle green hillside, merging into downland.
    • 2010, Howard Jacobson, chapter 12, in The Finkler Question, New York: Bloomsbury, page 278:
      He drank another whisky then left the pub and climbed slowly up the downlands, bent as the trees and shrubs were bent.

Hypernyms

References