downright

Etymology

From Middle English dounright, dounriȝt, equivalent to down- + right.

adj

1. (obsolete) Directed vertically; coming straight down.
   We thinke the heavens enjoy their Sphericall Their round proportion embracing all. But yet their various and perplexed course, Observ’d in divers ages doth enforce Men to finde out so many Eccentrique parts, Such divers downe-right lines, such overthwarts, As disproportion that pure forme. […] 1611, John Donne, An Anatomy of the World, London: Samuel Macham
2. Directly to the point; plain
   There were miners from Klondyke, hunters from the backwoods, troopers from the Northwest Frontier Police, and included were some of the “hardest cases” that the land of the maple leaf ever produced; these were past-masters in the use of unique expletives, and for downright and original profanity it would hardly be possible to find their equal. 1907, George Witton, chapter 5, in Scapegoats of the Empire: The True Story of Breaker Morant’s Bushveldt Carbineers
   1920, Annie Shepley Omori and Kochi Doi, Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Translator’s Note, English words and thought seem too downright a medium into which to render these evanescent, half-expressed sentences and poems—vague as the misty mountain scenery of her country, with no pronouns at all, and without verb inflections.
3. Using plain direct language; accustomed to express opinions directly and bluntly; blunt.
   1776, Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, London: W. Strahan & T. Cadell, Volume 1, Book 2, Chapter 2, p. 396, It bears the evident marks of having originally been, what the honest and downright Doctor Douglass assures us it was, a scheme of fraudulent debtors to cheat their creditors.
   The twisted trees and high tossed driftwood hinted that Skedans could be as thoroughly fierce as she was calm. She was downright about everything. 1941, Emily Carr, chapter 3, in Klee Wyck
4. Complete; absolute
   The weather is raw and boisterous in winter, shifty and ungenial in summer, and a downright meteorological purgatory in the spring. 1879, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 1, in Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes, London: Seeley, published 1903

adv

1. Really; actually; quite
   He wasn’t just cool to me, he was downright rude.
   Familiar! Madam, in Troth he’s down-right rude. 1716, Joseph Addison, The Drummer; or, The Haunted House, London: Jacob Tonson, act I, scene 1, page 8
   And, dear Lady G. he downright kissed me—My lip; and not my cheek—and in so fervent a way 1753, Samuel Richardson, The History of Sir Charles Grandison, Volume 6, Letter 31, p. 208
2. (obsolete) Straight down; perpendicularly.
3. (obsolete) Plainly, unambiguously; directly.
4. (obsolete) Without delay; at once.