How to Use downbeat in a Sentence

downbeat

1 of 2 noun

• And at 11:01, the first downbeat of 'Jingle Bells' starts.
  — Nancy Kruh, PEOPLE.com, 23 Nov. 2021
• In real life, though, the new downbeat normal struck a nerve.
  — Sally Singer, Vogue, 11 Aug. 2023
• The drums take Bonham-doffing downbeats and turnarounds without remorse, across the huge six-and-a-half-minute song.
  — Anna Tingley, Billboard, 10 Aug. 2017
• Percussion echoed as jingle dress dancers raised their fans with the downbeat of the drum, sending prayers of healing up to Creator.
  — Jarrette Werk, oregonlive, 16 Sep. 2023
• Here Weiss’ florid pianism, drummer Fludas’ fat downbeats and bassist Vinsel’s sizable tone made for the most vivid statement of the show.
  — Howard Reich, chicagotribune.com, 22 June 2018
• Friz Freleng gave us a highly theatrical Bugs who seemed to exist on a vaudeville stage, always ready at the drop of a downbeat to fly into song and dance.
  — Will Friedwald, WSJ, 13 Oct. 2020
• This is a rare instance of Watts stepping into the spotlight, throwing fills onto the end of nearly every line but never missing the timing of the next downbeat.
  — BostonGlobe.com, 25 Aug. 2021
• Again and again, a subtle shift of color, a chord exquisitely balanced, a telling hesitation before a pivotal downbeat shed new light on the music.
  — Scott Cantrell, Dallas News, 31 Jan. 2022
• Over a resonant downbeat, Abel Tesfaye makes good use of his signature falsetto.
  — Raisa Bruner, Time, 2 Feb. 2018
• This move emphasized a strong kick on every downbeat, popularizing the four-to-the-floor rhythmic pattern and laying the foundations for early house and techno.
  — Katie Bain, Billboard, 1 Nov. 2021
• The downbeat news was compounded by weak economic data from China, which dragged down luxury stocks across Europe.
  — Carol Ryan, WSJ, 17 July 2023
• These are all part of the remarkably consistent downbeat on radio stations given over to holiday music.
  — Michael Brendan Dougherty, National Review, 20 Dec. 2019
• Saturday mornings will feature No Soul Train—a dance show that highlights white people’s blatant disregard for downbeats.
  — Michael Harriot, The Root, 17 July 2017
• Heavy on the downbeats, his reading of that season-opening staple was the only weak link on the orchestra’s unusually lively and engaging opening gala on Saturday night.
  — Washington Post, 30 Sep. 2019
• While the pair have worked together in the past Jpegmafia’s production on this project is his most freewheeling, taking refuge in decidedly chaotic registers by introducing downbeats and drum sequences like a gambler at a slot machine.
  — Jeff Ihaza, Rolling Stone, 28 Mar. 2023
• The mobility and forward direction were commendable, although downbeats sometimes came too automatically when a tiny delay here and there would have given the music more shape.
  — Scott Cantrell, Dallas News, 9 June 2023
• From the concert’s opening downbeat, Sorrell was a very engaging conductor, gracefully offering clear direction yet eschewing a rigid allegiance to structure in favor of a free and passionate feel.
  — Rob Hubbard, Twin Cities, 7 Apr. 2017
• Later, ethereal notes in the chorus are punctuated by firm string downbeats, like exhalations, that build to loud grandeur, then immediately recede, before a swirling, swinging climax driven on by an undercurrent of ba-bum heartbeat rhythm.
  — Zachary Woolfe, New York Times, 18 Mar. 2016
• Some Ewe rhythms have a slippery, collapsing quality, an amorphous relationship to any easily recognizable downbeat.
  — Finn Cohen, New York Times, 21 Apr. 2017
• And at 11:01, the first downbeat of 'Jingle Bells' starts.
  — Nancy Kruh, PEOPLE.com, 23 Nov. 2021
• In real life, though, the new downbeat normal struck a nerve.
  — Sally Singer, Vogue, 11 Aug. 2023
• The drums take Bonham-doffing downbeats and turnarounds without remorse, across the huge six-and-a-half-minute song.
  — Anna Tingley, Billboard, 10 Aug. 2017
• Percussion echoed as jingle dress dancers raised their fans with the downbeat of the drum, sending prayers of healing up to Creator.
  — Jarrette Werk, oregonlive, 16 Sep. 2023
• Here Weiss’ florid pianism, drummer Fludas’ fat downbeats and bassist Vinsel’s sizable tone made for the most vivid statement of the show.
  — Howard Reich, chicagotribune.com, 22 June 2018
• Friz Freleng gave us a highly theatrical Bugs who seemed to exist on a vaudeville stage, always ready at the drop of a downbeat to fly into song and dance.
  — Will Friedwald, WSJ, 13 Oct. 2020
• This is a rare instance of Watts stepping into the spotlight, throwing fills onto the end of nearly every line but never missing the timing of the next downbeat.
  — BostonGlobe.com, 25 Aug. 2021
• Again and again, a subtle shift of color, a chord exquisitely balanced, a telling hesitation before a pivotal downbeat shed new light on the music.
  — Scott Cantrell, Dallas News, 31 Jan. 2022
• Over a resonant downbeat, Abel Tesfaye makes good use of his signature falsetto.
  — Raisa Bruner, Time, 2 Feb. 2018
• This move emphasized a strong kick on every downbeat, popularizing the four-to-the-floor rhythmic pattern and laying the foundations for early house and techno.
  — Katie Bain, Billboard, 1 Nov. 2021
• The downbeat news was compounded by weak economic data from China, which dragged down luxury stocks across Europe.
  — Carol Ryan, WSJ, 17 July 2023

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downbeat

2 of 2 adjective

• Wilkins gave a downbeat and then sat down in the front row.
  — Tim Diovanni, Dallas News, 13 June 2021
• But the mood in the room was downbeat and his friends’ questions were full of reproach.
  — Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker, 9 Aug. 2021
• All in all a respectable, but downbeat, start to Venice 2023.
  — Scott Roxborough, The Hollywood Reporter, 30 Aug. 2023
• Investors might have been concerned by the downbeat tone of the big banks.
  — Paul R. La Monica, CNN, 13 Jan. 2023
• Not to start 2022 off on a downbeat, but here’s a close-up of the effects of climate change.
  — Mary Forgione, Los Angeles Times, 6 Jan. 2022
• But that didn’t seem right to Brandon Perea, who brought a more downbeat, angsty approach to the role.
  — Stuart Miller, Variety, 28 Jan. 2023
• The other half of the rhythm is the backbeat and kick relationship, or the downbeat and the backbeat.
  — Vulture, 16 Mar. 2022
• The ratings agency cites three key reasons for the downbeat view.
  — Ed Silverman, STAT, 28 Feb. 2021
• But the downbeat mood was already lifting by the afternoon with the S&P 500 making up much of its lost ground.
  — Mike Bird, WSJ, 21 Dec. 2020
• But this year, even the neologisms were a bit downbeat.
  — Jennifer Schuessler, New York Times, 22 Nov. 2020
• British businesses, among the world’s worst hit by the coronavirus, were downbeat.
  — The Christian Science Monitor, 24 Dec. 2020
• Commenters remarked that despite the soothing title, the song was an odd choice due to its downbeat lyrics.
  — Pat Saperstein, Variety, 25 Apr. 2022
• That this downbeat drama made it into the race at all should serve as the film’s biggest victory.
  — New York Times, 9 Feb. 2022
• But The Batman moves the goalposts for downbeat superhero thrills.
  — Darren Franich, EW.com, 10 Mar. 2022
• Stocks were lower around midday Tuesday, starting the new year on a downbeat note.
  — David Marino-Nachison, WSJ, 3 Jan. 2023
• The story concludes on a downbeat note that returns us once more to the past, and reminds us that Boogie’s journey isn’t his alone.
  — Los Angeles Times, 3 Mar. 2021
• Audi’s downbeat presence at CES swapped the usual fanfare of a booth on the show floor for a fleet of cars demonstrating Holoride.
  — WIRED, 7 Jan. 2023
• Most of the movies that are struggling at the box office are downbeat, coming at a time when audiences want escape.
  — Brooks Barnes, New York Times, 9 Dec. 2022
• The story is not in itself unusual, nor is the downbeat setting.
  — Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, 20 June 2021
• The campaign had been brief and downbeat, and polling numbers barely changed in the buildup to the vote, suggesting a lack of engagement by voters.
  — Patrick Kingsley, New York Times, 2 Nov. 2022
• The steep fall triggered by downbeat results appears to be overdone.
  — Trefis Team, Forbes, 20 Jan. 2022
• What critics said: Esquire deemed the series too downbeat.
  — Julie Hinds, Freep.com, 18 Mar. 2022
• Recent surveys have shown that consumers have rarely felt more downbeat about all of these measures.
  — Aziz Sunderji, WSJ, 4 Sep. 2022
• Stocks had a downbeat ending to a difficult month on Friday.
  — Matt Grossman, WSJ, 3 Oct. 2022
• One reason Stokes’s downbeat lyrics didn’t dampen the mood is that many of them were sung back to her by the audience in a spirit of communal bliss.
  — Washington Post, 26 Feb. 2022
• The recent fall can be attributed to its downbeat Q3 results.
  — Trefis Team, Forbes, 11 Nov. 2021
• Amid a downbeat mood, some analysts focused on the longer-term outlook for Netflix though.
  — Georg Szalai, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Jan. 2022
• But her downbeat tone laid bare the sense of futility felt by Western leaders about Afghanistan.
  — New York Times, 24 Aug. 2021
• Her downbeat side has been too much stressed, maybe due to a general tendency among writers to valorize the darker byways of modernism.
  — Elizabeth Barber, Harper's Magazine, 2 Feb. 2024
• Americans remain downbeat even if the economic mood has ticked upward.
  — Shane Goldmacher, New York Times, 6 Mar. 2024

Last Updated: 5 Sep 2024