What's the difference between downright and positive?

Downright


Definition:

  • (adv.) Straight down; perpendicularly.
  • (adv.) In plain terms; without ceremony.
  • (adv.) Without delay; at once; completely.
  • (a.) Plain; direct; unceremonious; blunt; positive; as, he spoke in his downright way.
  • (a.) Open; artless; undisguised; absolute; unmixed; as, downright atheism.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) In The Girl, the relationship moves from Pygmalion to Beauty and the Beast, before curdling into something more mutually destructive, if not downright abusive.
  • (2) Unfortunately, this explosion is mild compared with the number of myths, falsehoods and downright lies which have accompanied these ideas.
  • (3) It was ambitious, experimental and sometimes downright odd – but seductively, compulsively readable too.
  • (4) Patterson agrees that it’s all much more controlled now, but she also wonders whether at times the media can be too negative, doomy, and sometimes downright nasty.
  • (5) Indeed, such parochialism would be downright frowned upon by today's World Cup mentality, considering that both the official anthem and slogan this time round is the typically Fifa-ishly nonsensical, and distinctly Benetton-esque, "We Are One".
  • (6) And it means that if Labour were to win, Mr Brown would be very foolish, indeed downright wrong, to move Mr Darling.
  • (7) In excerpts of these videos I am shown making a series of glib, thoughtless and sometimes downright insulting comments”, Gruber told the committee.
  • (8) Because supply chains are so long and processors use subcontractors to supply meat when the volume of orders changes dramatically at short notice, it is all too easy for mislabelled, poorer quality, or downright fraudulent meat to be substituted for what is specified in big abattoirs and processing plants.
  • (9) They can look downright ladylike, even sexy, and this has caused the high street to go shorts-crazy.
  • (10) 8.24pm BST "The mood is downright miserable" – defense department education activity employee The Guardian's Ruth Spencer ( @ruths ) is in touch with federal workers affected by the shutdown.
  • (11) We do not claim an inch of land that does not belong to us, but we won’t give up any patch that is ours,” the newspaper said , adding: “China, of course, will not accept such downright political provocations.” The China Daily, Beijing’s English-language mouthpiece, claimed the “outrageously one-sided ruling” meant military confrontation in the region had become more likely.
  • (12) Though against Tampa Bay in the ALDS he was downright awful.
  • (13) In other words, it's hilarious to watch when sober, it's downright mindblowing if you're anything but.
  • (14) Of course the polarisation of old and young rests on a fallacy, if not a downright lie: that all young people possess perfect skin and gleaming hair, have non-stop sex, are bursting with energy and are never lonely.
  • (15) Evidence reveals, however, that our planet is an almost unimaginably complicated beast, which reacts to a dramatically changing climate in all manner of different ways; a few – like the aforementioned – straightforward and predictable; some surprising and others downright implausible.
  • (16) These can range from the well-established to the downright eccentric.
  • (17) Despite Downing Street's dismissal of the former president's claim, the conjunction is likely to feed the perceptions of some in China that western concern about human rights is at best selective and at worst downright hypocritical.
  • (18) Many millions of words have been spilt on the subject of the perfect cup of coffee, the vast proportion confusing or downright contradictory.
  • (19) 10.50pm BST 90+1 min: It's a measure of how downright German the Germans are that Manuel Neuer and his defenders were absolutely furious with each other for allowing Brazil to score that late goal.
  • (20) Whitehall eventually intervened, with a government inspector ruling: "Any system of control must make some small place for the dynamic, the unexpected, the downright quirky."

Positive


Definition:

  • (a.) Having a real position, existence, or energy; existing in fact; real; actual; -- opposed to negative.
  • (a.) Derived from an object by itself; not dependent on changing circumstances or relations; absolute; -- opposed to relative; as, the idea of beauty is not positive, but depends on the different tastes individuals.
  • (a.) Definitely laid down; explicitly stated; clearly expressed; -- opposed to implied; as, a positive declaration or promise.
  • (a.) Hence: Not admitting of any doubt, condition, qualification, or discretion; not dependent on circumstances or probabilities; not speculative; compelling assent or obedience; peremptory; indisputable; decisive; as, positive instructions; positive truth; positive proof.
  • (a.) Prescribed by express enactment or institution; settled by arbitrary appointment; said of laws.
  • (a.) Fully assured; confident; certain; sometimes, overconfident; dogmatic; overbearing; -- said of persons.
  • (a.) Having the power of direct action or influence; as, a positive voice in legislation.
  • (a.) Corresponding with the original in respect to the position of lights and shades, instead of having the lights and shades reversed; as, a positive picture.
  • (a.) Electro-positive.
  • (a.) Hence, basic; metallic; not acid; -- opposed to negative, and said of metals, bases, and basic radicals.
  • (n.) That which is capable of being affirmed; reality.
  • (n.) That which settles by absolute appointment.
  • (n.) The positive degree or form.
  • (n.) A picture in which the lights and shades correspond in position with those of the original, instead of being reversed, as in a negative.
  • (n.) The positive plate of a voltaic or electrolytic cell.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The bank tellers who saw their positions filled by male superiors took special pleasure in going to the bank and keeping them busy.
  • (2) In each sheep there was a significant negative correlation between the glucose and corticosteroid concentrations in both maternal and fetal plasma, and there were positive correlations between the maternal and fetal plasma concentrations of glucose, and between the glucose and fructose concentrations of fetal plasma.
  • (3) None of the strains was found to be positive for cytotoxic enterotoxin in the GM1-ELISA.
  • (4) The patterns observed were: clusters of granules related to the cell membrane; positive staining localized to portions of the cell membrane, and, less commonly, the whole cell circumference.
  • (5) In 49 cases undergoing systemic lymphadenectomy 32 were found to have glandular involvement, of which both aortic and pelvic nodes were positive in 17 cases (53.1%), aortic nodes positive but pelvic negative in six (18.8%), and pelvic nodes positive but aortic negative in nine (28.1%).
  • (6) The Na+ ionophore, gramicidin, had a small but significant inhibitory effect on Na(+)-dependent KG uptake, demonstrating that KG uptake was not the result of an intravesicular positive Na+ diffusion potential.
  • (7) Fecal occult blood was positive in 4 patients and fecal leukocytes were positive in one patient.
  • (8) We have determined the genomic structure of the fosB gene and shown that it consists of 4 exons and 3 introns at positions also found in the c-fos gene.
  • (9) An unsaturated fatty acid auxotroph of Escherichia coli was grown with a series of cis-octadecenoate isomers in which the location of the double bond varied from positions 3 to 17.
  • (10) It is concluded that amlodipine reduces myocardial ischemic injury by mechanism(s) that may involve a reduction in myocardial oxygen demand as well as by positively influencing transmembrane Ca2+ fluxes during ischemia and reperfusion.
  • (11) Stimulation is also observed with mixtures of APC expressing DPw3 and APC expressing A1, and likewise, DPw3+ APC become stimulatory when preincubated with supernatants from A1-positive cells.
  • (12) Nine of 14 patients studied for documented clinical relapse had positive repeat studies.
  • (13) Ca2+ transport was positively correlated with MR cell density.
  • (14) At pH 7.0, reduction is complete after 6 to 10 h. These results together with an earlier study concerning the positions of the two most readily reduced bonds (Cornell J.S., and Pierce, J.G.
  • (15) A quadripolar catheter was positioned either at the site of earliest ventricular activation during induced monomorphic ventricular tachycardia or at circumscribed areas of the left ventricle.
  • (16) Fifteen sera ICA-IgG and ICA-protein A positive with high titres remained positive thereafter.
  • (17) These data indicate that RNA faithfully transfers "suppressive" as well as "positive" types of immune responses that have been reported previously for lymphocytes obtained directly from tumour-bearing and tumour-immune animals.
  • (18) Induction of labor, based upon only (1) a finding of meconium in the amniocentesis group or (2) a positive test in the OCT group, was nearly three times more frequent in the amniocentesis group.
  • (19) Mike Ashley told Lee Charnley that maybe he could talk with me last week but I said: ‘Listen, we cannot say too much so I think it’s better if we wait.’ The message Mike Ashley is sending is quite positive, but it was better to talk after we play Tottenham.” Benítez will ask Ashley for written assurances over his transfer budget, control of transfers and other spheres of club autonomy, but can also reassure the owner that the prospect of managing in the second tier holds few fears for him.
  • (20) When subjects centered themselves actively, or additionally, contracted trunk flexor or extensor muscles to predetermined levels of activity, no increase in trunk positioning accuracy was found.