adv. and a. north. (Often hyphened, or as two words.) Also 4 evenden. [f. EVEN adv. (sense 5) + DOWN adv.]
A. adv.
† 1. Straight down. Obs.
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 1345. So ryde þay of by resoun bi þe rygge bonez, euenden to þe haunche.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 13285. Thai … derkon euon down on a depe slomur.
2. dial. = ‘Downright’; quite, thoroughly.
1869. Lonsdale Gloss., s.v., ‘He threaped ma evven-down’ = He flatly contradicted me.
1876. Whitby Gloss., s.v., That’s even-down just.
1877. Holderness Gloss., s.v., He’s even-doon fond, is that lad.
B. adj. (dial.)
1. Coming straight down: said of rain.
1801. Har’st Rig, lxxxiii. 27 (Jam.). Now it turns an eident blast, An even-down pour!
1822. Galt, Steam-boat, 258–9. An even-down thunder-plump came on, that … drookit the Doctor to the skin.
1880. Antrim & Down Gloss., s.v., There was an even down pour.
2. a. Of persons, in a good sense: Upright, straightforward; in a bad sense: Downright, out and out. b. Of statements, etc.: Downright, direct. Of things: Downright, sheer; absolute.
1786. Burns, Twa Dogs, 206. But Gentlemen, an’ Ladies warst, Wi’ ev’n doun want o’ wark are curst.
1789. D. Sillar, Poems, 186.
| The tither threep’d it was a fiction, | |
| An ev’n down perfect contradiction. |
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, vi. To tell your honour the even down truth.
1823. Misses Corbett, Petticoat Tales, I. 288 (Jam.). I may hae said that Andrew liked a drap drink, but that’s no just an evendoun drinker.
1826. J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr., Wks. 1855, I. 63. I never heard such evendown nonsense … in a’ my born days.
1834. Sir H. Taylor, Artevelde, I. x. (1849), 33. In the even-down letter you are right.
1877. N. W. Linc. Gloss., s.v., He’s a strange punct’al man, as even down to the ground as can be.
