- towards the ground; towards a lower place or position
- She was lying face downwards on the grass.
- The garden sloped gently downwards to the river.
Language Bank fallfallDescribing a decreaseTopics Change, cause and effectb2- Car crime in Oxford fell significantly last year.
- Car crime fell by about a quarter over a 12-month period.
- The number of stolen vehicles dropped from 1 013 to 780, a fall of 26 per cent.
- According to this data, 780 vehicles were stolen, 26 per cent down on the previous year.
- There was an 11 per cent drop in reported thefts from motor vehicles, from 1 971 to 1 737.
- These figures show that, as far as car crime is concerned, the main trend is downwards.
Oxford Collocations DictionaryDownwards is used with these verbs:- adjust
- float
- jerk
- …
- towards a lower level, amount or price
- Nine per cent of commuters used public transport in 2018 and the trend is downwards.
- It was a policy welcomed by world leaders from the US president downwards.
- Official projections of the spread of AIDS have mercifully been revised downwards (= it has been predicted that the disease will not spread as fast as had earlier been suggested).
- The economy is in a bad state and the stock market is spiraling downwards.
Check pronunciation:
downwards