downside

Etymology

Compound of down + side.

noun

1. A disadvantageous aspect of something that is normally advantageous.
   The downside of obtaining a higher rank is that far more work is expected.
   Hazardous and nuclear waste came to represent the downside of industrial prosperity. 1998, Hal Rothman, Gerald W. Nash, Richard W. Etulain, The Greening of a Nation?:, page 136
   The downside of being snaggle-toothed is that you whistle through them and people can't understand what you're talking about. 2000, Zvonimir Balog, Nice Manners, Or, How Can I Avoid Growing Up to be a Twit, page 200
   The downside of using acid gas for enhanced oil recovery is that the incremental produced oil contains H₂S and has to be desulphurized. 2005, Edward S. Rubin, Greenhouse Gas Control TechnologiesGreenhouse Gas Control Technologies, page 456
2. A downward tendency, especially in the price of shares etc.
   The strategy is used both to increase the return on the underlying stock and to provide a limited amount of downside protection. 1987, Information Circular
   I could go all the way back to 1982 and I'm sure the effects of the expiration will be even more exacerbated on the downside of the spread. 1994, The Review of Futures Markets - Volume 13, Issues 1-2, page 112
   In Table 3, the options are shown for the same client who will accept a one in ten chance of breaching the downside of -3% in any one year. 2002, The Professional Investor, page 17
   Alienation: A stage on the downside of the passage wherein the holdfast and the antihero take actions which bring about a disintegration of personality. 2006, James Bonnet, Stealing Fire from the Gods: The Complete Guide to Story for Writers and Filmmakers
3. The side of something that is at the bottom, or that is intended to face downward.
   An apparatus for heat-treating a flowing fluid, comprising a fluid source; a heat exchange unit provided with a regenerative section, the latter having an upside through which such fluid is caused to flow and a downside through which such fluid is caused to flow subsequent to being heated, said upside and downside being separated from one another by a heat-conductive wall, […] 1960, Lloyd T. Gustafson, Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office, page 165
   The buildings on the downside of the station were demolished and new premises of modern design constructed on the new platform. 1962, Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological, page 144
   Notice in Figure 19.2 that polarities naturally and predictably "flow" (arrows represent a plot of changes in results) from the downside of pole L toward the upside of pole R; the into the downside of pole R; then toward the upside of the first, pole L; and finally back to the downside of L, where it all began. 1999, Patricia S. Yoder-Wise, Leading and Managing in Nursing, page 330
   Moreover, the flow chugging was observed at the downside of the plate. 2003, Proceedings of the 2003 ASME Summer Heat Transfer Conference, page 223