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downbeat

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down⋅beat

  [doun-beet]
Use downbeat in a Sentence
–noun Music.
1. the downward stroke of a conductor's arm or baton indicating the first or accented beat of a measure.
2. the first beat of a measure.
–adjective
3. gloomy or depressing; pessimistic: Hollywood movies seldom have downbeat endings.
Origin:
1875–80; down 1 + beat (n.)
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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down·beat   (doun'bēt')   
n.  

  1. Music

    1. The downward stroke made by a conductor to indicate the first beat of a measure.

    2. The first beat of a measure.

  2. Informal A period of stagnation or inactivity.

adj.  Cheerless; pessimistic.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary
downbeat

  1. mod.
    cool; easygoing. (Compare this with upbeat.) : He is sort of a downbeat character—no stress.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Word Origin & History

downbeat 
1876, in ref. to downward stroke of a conductor's baton; 1952 in fig. sense of "pessimistic," but probably just from the association of the word down, since the beat itself is no more pessimistic than the upbeat (q.v.) is optimistic.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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