downcast

Etymology

From Middle English *doun-casten, *adoun-casten (inferred from Middle English adoun-casting (“downcasting”), adoun-cast (“overthrow, destruction”)), modelled similarly to other constructions in Middle English (namely, Middle English adoun-throwen (“to throw down”), adoun-werpen (“to throw down”)), equivalent to down- + cast.

adj

1. (of eyes) Looking downwards.
   'Tis love, said she; and then my downcast eyes, / And guilty dumbness, witness'd my surprise. 1717, John Dryden, Canace to Macareus
2. (of a person) Feeling despondent.

noun

1. (computing) A cast from supertype to subtype.
2. (obsolete) A melancholy look.
   That downcast of thine eye. 1619, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, The Maid's Tragedy
3. (mining) A ventilating shaft down which the air passes in circulating through a mine.

verb

1. (transitive, obsolete) To cast or throw down; to turn downward.
2. (transitive, Scotland) To taunt; to reproach; to upbraid.
3. (transitive, computing) To cast from supertype to subtype.