Down'ward or Down'wards1, adv.
adv. [From down and ward, q. v.; Down'wards, } A-S. adūneweard, dūneweard.]
Sense 1. From a higher place to a lower; in a descending course; as, to tend downward; to move or roll downward; to look downward; to take root downward.
Their heads they downward bent. Drayton.
Sense 2. From a higher to a lower condition; toward misery, humility, disgrace, or ruin.
Sense 3. From a remote time; from an ancestor or predecessor.
A ring the count does wear, That downward hath descended in his house, From son to son, some four or five descents. Shak.