Down"ward (?), Down"wards (?), adv. [AS. adnweard. See Down, adv., and -ward.]
1.
From a higher place to a lower; in a descending course; as, to tend, move, roll, look, or take root, downward or downwards.
"Looking
downwards."
Pope.
Their heads they downward bent.
Drayton.
2.
From a higher to a lower condition; toward misery, humility, disgrace, or ruin.
And downward fell into a groveling swine.
Milton.
3.
From a remote time; from an ancestor or predecessor; from one to another in a descending line.
A ring the county wears,
That downward hath descended in his house,
From son to son, some four or five descents.
Shak.
© Webster 1913.