DOWNSTAIRS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does downstairs mean? 

• DOWNSTAIRS (adjective)
  The adjective DOWNSTAIRS has 1 sense:

1. on or of lower floors of a building

  Familiarity information: DOWNSTAIRS used as an adjective is very rare.

• DOWNSTAIRS (adverb)
  The adverb DOWNSTAIRS has 1 sense:

1. on a floor below

  Familiarity information: DOWNSTAIRS used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DOWNSTAIRS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

On or of lower floors of a building

Synonyms:

downstair; downstairs

Context example:

the downstairs (or downstair) phone

Similar:

ground-floor (on the floor closest to level with the ground)

Antonym:

upstairs (on or of upper floors of a building)

• DOWNSTAIRS (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

On a floor below

Synonyms:

below; down the stairs; downstairs; on a lower floor

Context example:

the tenants live downstairs

Antonym:

upstairs (on a floor above)

 Context examples 

But first I went downstairs to see Mr. Wickfield and Uriah Heep.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Weedon Scott pressed a button, and the staircase and downstairs hall were flooded with light.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

With strained ears, I listened, and heard downstairs the grinding of the key in the great lock and the falling back of the heavy door.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Miss Cat went downstairs and sent the wooer away.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

He went downstairs and out into the street, breathing great breaths of air.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The bottle was downstairs in my laboratory, so leaving my patient seated in his chair, I ran down to get it.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He might have spoken, but I did not hear; one hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me, but I escaped and rushed downstairs.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

At the same instant my mother, alarmed by the cries and fighting, came running downstairs to help me.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

“You say that three people came out from the flat while you were waiting downstairs,” said he at last.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Mary used to sit up reading in her own little room downstairs.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)