I. down ‧ beat 1 /ˈdaʊnbiːt/ BrE AmE adjective
not showing any strong feelings, especially not happy ones OPP upbeat :
Al was surprisingly downbeat about the party.
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THESAURUS
▪ pessimistic expecting that bad things will happen, or that someone will be unsuccessful:
He was pessimistic about the team’s chances of winning the championship.
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a pessimistic view of human nature
▪ downbeat having an attitude that is not hopeful and not expecting success, or not expecting the situation to improve, especially the economic or political situation:
The overall mood in the stockmarket is decidedly downbeat.
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The chairman made some downbeat remarks about the company’s sales performance.
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His assessment of the UK’s economic prospects is generally downbeat.
▪ gloomy not having much hope for the future:
Environmental groups are gloomy about the future of our planet.
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The article painted a gloomy picture of the human rights situation in Burma.
▪ negative considering only the bad qualities of a situation, person etc, and not the good ones:
His negative attitude towards work was affecting his colleagues.
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Why are you always so negative?
▪ fear the worst formal to expect a situation to have the worst possible result, because you know how bad the situation could be:
I hadn’t heard any news from her for over a week, and I was starting to fear the worst.
▪ sb’s glass is half empty informal used about people who only see the bad qualities of a situation, even when other people might see better qualities in the same situation:
He’s one of those people whose glass is always half empty.
II. downbeat 2 BrE AmE noun [countable]
1 . the first note in a ↑ bar of music
2 . the movement a ↑ conductor makes to show when this note is to be played or sung