lowering — English Dictionary

Noun

1. The act of something being lowered.

   Examples

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   Speeds up to 90 m.p.h. were permitted and achieved on the regular daily main line services, but as the pressure of external demands imposed on the railways by the needs of war increased it became necessary to accept handicaps which resulted in a general lowering of standards of track conditions.

2. A sound change in which a vowel or consonant becomes lower.

   Antonyms

   raising

Adjective

1. Dark and menacing.

   Usage

   • of sky or environment

   Synonyms

   gloomythreatening

   Examples

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   The morning had been intensely hot, with but little wind; and the lowering gloomy aspect of the clouds appeared to indicate the approach of one of those sudden gales peculiar to tropical climates, and which, although of short duration, are generally productive of mischief.

   The wide prospect up stream was grey and lowering, the long still-distant waterfront of Dundee, and the Fife shore were alike colourless, and there was ample evidence of rough weather not far ahead.

   Ahead of us the lowering smoke-screen of Leeds and her gloomy satellites hung like an incubus over the land.

   Jon crossed the pass into Glen Maraich in a stinging flurry of sleet, heading down between dark walls of rock under a lowering sky.

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   Bleak fields stretched to the horizon beneath lowering clouds.

2. That lowers or frowns.

   Synonyms

   frowningscowlinggloomysullenglowering

   Examples

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   One glance sufficed to identify the intruder, for none but he could boast of such a dark, lowering countenance ; and all exclaimed in mingled wonder and terror at his unwonted presence in those sunlit regions:

   A kind of dark pallor lent him a ghostly appearance in the uncertain light, an effect heightened by the satanic darkness of his lowering brows.

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   The Countess had liked Elsa from the first moment when she saw her, ragged, unkempt and forlorn, among the lowering, suspicious men-at-arms in the courtyard, and now that she knew the dangers and the privations the girl had braved for the sake of Wilhelm, the affectionate heart of Beatrix found ample room for the motherless Elsa.

   Crequy, for several moments, appeared not to have heard. His face became more lowering.

3. Lurking, skulking, menacing.

   Examples

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   Klimov put on his greatcoat mechanically and left the train, and he felt as though it were not himself walking, but some one else, a stranger, and he felt that he was accompanied by the heat of the train, his thirst, and the ominous, lowering figures which all night long had prevented his sleeping.

   They might have stayed until dusk, undisturbed by Schmidt's casual customers, had it not been for the entrance of three grimy and lowering men.

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   The outsize nature of Norse mythological characters is well noted in Caselli's dramatic close-ups, in which the powerful, lowering figures of Odin or Thor are backed by ice and rock, massive trolls, gigantic eagles and wolves.

Adjective

1. darkened by clouds

   Synonyms

   heavysullenthreatening

   Examples

   a heavy sky

Noun

1. the act of causing to become less

   Broader terms

   decreasediminutionreductionstep-down

2. the act of causing something to move to a lower level

   Synonyms

   letting down

   Broader terms

   movement