downstroke

down +‎ stroke

downstroke (plural downstrokes)

1. A downward stroke, especially one that is part of a sequence of alternating upward and downward strokes.
   • 1952, C. S. Lewis, chapter 10, in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Collins, published 1998:

     It was written, not printed; written in a clear, even hand, with thick downstrokes and thin upstrokes, very large, easier than print, and so beautiful that Lucy stared at it for a whole minute and forgot about reading it.

   • 1997, Ted Hughes, Tales from Ovid, London: Faber & Faber, "Erisychthon," lines 41-6, p. 86,

     He snatches an axe—and hauls / The weight of the broad head up and back. / But in that moment, as the blade hangs / Poised for the first downstroke, shudderings / Swarm through the whole tree, to its outermost twigs / And a groan bursts out of the deep grain.

   • 2021, Scott Schad, Typewriters for Writers, page 500:

     If you keep typing on the downstroke of the spacebar it lets you, for example, squeeze a four-letter word into the space normally occupied by a three-letter word.

• (antonym(s) of “upward stroke”): upstroke

• up for the downstroke