down av, prep DC ~ north 1 Nfld (1905) for sense 1; JOYCE 71 for sense 3 (give) down the banks; cp EDD ~ 2 (1), (2) ~ along (folk) for sense 3. Cp UP.
   1 Northward along the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, esp in phr down along, ~ north, ~ the shore, ~ to the Labrador.
   1862 NOBLE 27-8 Down the northern sea! ... This calling north down ... instead of up, appears to me to be reversing the right order of things. It is against the stream, which, inshore, sets from Baffin's Bay south; and, in respect of latitude, it is up-hill; the nearer the pole, the higher the latitude. And besides, it is up on the map, and was up all through my boyhood, when geography was a favourite study. But as down seems to be the direction settled upon in common parlance, down it shall be in all these pages. [1870] 1973 KELLY 18 Her husband and sons were 'down the shore,' i.e. further north, in search of the best fishing-ground. 1888 STEARNS 9-10 'You've been there [Labrador] before, I suppose?' '. . .I lived down there for three years! ... That was about 1870, and since that time I've been 'down along,' as they call it ... nearly every year and two or three parties have been down with me almost every time.' 1909 BROWNE 295 My grandfather, if not the pioneer of fishing this little nook, was the first to make it headquarters for 'the down-the-shore trip.' 1919 GRENFELL¹ 61 December days are short, anyhow, 'down north' and every moment warned them that the chances of getting out before dark were rapidly diminishing. 1936 SMITH 47 Fish wasn't plentiful the remainder of that week, and most of the schooners left for down the shore. 1964 BLONDAHL (ed) 45 "Lukey's Boat": Oh, Lukey he sailed her down the shore, / To catch the fish on the Labrador. 1973 BARBOUR 9 Newfoundlanders have always said 'down to the Labrador,' or 'down' to any place north of where they were living; or 'up to St John's' or 'up to New York,' when they were really going in a southerly direction. 1979 Salt Water, Fresh Water 53 You'd only have to go down here about thirty or forty miles north of the Funk Islands. Usually the ships would get down twenty-five or thirty miles north of that island and would strike the seals.
   2 A little distance off along a shore-line or road near the water.
   T 158/63-65 There was livye[rs] ... people lived down on the easter part o' the island. T 264-66 To the left was 'hold in' always when you was goin' [by dog-team] down the shore; you sing out 'hold in' an' he turn towards the water. 1968 DILLON 137 I believe old Tom Brophy down uses it, 'the rack' [directly]. 1977 RUSSELL 61 A fellow from down the shore come to Pigeon Inlet to take the census.
   3 Comb down alongs: residents of the east end of St John's.
   1976 MURPHY 32 But the clashes between the 'Down-Alongs,' the boys of the East End, and the 'Up-Alongs,' the boys of the West End, that were in being in the sixties, seventies and eighties were reminders of the old faction fight days.
   down dru me's (pron of down through me's): diarrhoea (1937 DEVINE 18; M 68-18).
   down shaft: in mining, a vertical shaft or tunnel.
   1974 PINSENT 6 They had drilled and blasted into a down shaft of the old mine, according to bad information from inaccurate and outdated blue-prints. A down shaft now filled with water.
   down the banks: a reprimand; TONGUE-BANGING.
   P 108-76 I'll give him down the banks when I catch him, the young sleeveen!
   down the Labrador: part of the movement of a cotillion. C 75-141 'Goat ... is a dance which in some areas of the province is known as the cotillion. It consists of eight people, four girls and four boys. It includes (i) through the bushes; (ii) figure eight; (iii) down the Labrador; (iv) threading the needle.

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