What's the difference between downright and utter?

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."

Utter


Definition:

  • (a.) Outer.
  • (a.) Situated on the outside, or extreme limit; remote from the center; outer.
  • (a.) Complete; perfect; total; entire; absolute; as, utter ruin; utter darkness.
  • (a.) Peremptory; unconditional; unqualified; final; as, an utter refusal or denial.
  • (a.) To put forth or out; to reach out.
  • (a.) To dispose of in trade; to sell or vend.
  • (a.) hence, to put in circulation, as money; to put off, as currency; to cause to pass in trade; -- often used, specifically, of the issue of counterfeit notes or coins, forged or fraudulent documents, and the like; as, to utter coin or bank notes.
  • (a.) To give public expression to; to disclose; to publish; to speak; to pronounce.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) In the experiments to be reported here, computer-averaged EMG data were obtained from PCA of native speakers of American English, Japanese, and Danish who uttered test words embedded in frame sentences.
  • (2) This study examined the frequency of occurrence of velar deviations in spontaneous single-word utterances over a 6-month period for 40 children who ranged in age from 1:11 (years:months) to 3:1 at the first observation.
  • (3) Her speech suggested the kind of Republican who would truly "raise the conversation", and if it seems like settling to want an opposition party to simply not be so utterly vindictive, well, yes, I will settle for that.
  • (4) Theresa May has shown a complete and utter lack of interest in Northern Ireland since taking office.
  • (5) The results of the present study focused on differences in types of self-touching by patients and physicians, semantic content of utterances when self-touching was displayed, and temporal location of self-touching within the speech stream.
  • (6) A single-subject design was applied to study increase in functional use of language by a 14-yr.-old Down Syndrome girl from a mean length of utterance of 1.3 words to 4.4 in a classroom, 5.1 in the restaurant, and 4.7 during transportation.
  • (7) The media is utterly self-obsessed and we get more ink than perhaps we should do.
  • (8) Instead, because of other people, it all too often becomes something else: a complete and utter hell.
  • (9) Three male and 2 female subjects produced six repetitions of 12 utterances that were initiated and terminated by vowels and consonants of differing phonetic features.
  • (10) The infant, who was utterly small for his gestational age, showed an aberrant motoric pattern and a high forehead, low-set ears, a prominent occiput and scoliosis, an extension defect in the knee joints and flexed, ulnar-deviated wrists.
  • (11) "How these union bosses get elected, how they raise money, how they disperse money is a complete and utter mystery.
  • (12) Thus in your own words you have said why it was utterly inappropriate for you to use the platform of a Pac hearing in this way.” He suggested that many professionals were “in despair at the lack of understanding and cheap haranguing which characterise your manner” after a series of hearings at which Hodge has led fierce interrogations of senior business figures and others.
  • (13) Much of the research dealing with linguistic dimensions in stuttering has emphasized the various aspects of grammar, particularly as these aspects contribute to the meaning of utterances.
  • (14) That's completely and utterly grotesque and, no matter how proud we all are in the labour movement that the minimum wage exists, not a single day goes by that we shouldn't be disgusted with ourselves for that.
  • (15) The changes in Parkinsonian subjects of the cross-sectional area during the utterance of sustained sounds are attributed to both Parkinsonian tremor and rigidity.
  • (16) Too distressed to utter more than a single word - "Devastated" - in the immediate aftermath of her withdrawal, a pale and red-eyed Radcliffe emerged yesterday to give her version of the events that ended the attempt to crown her career with a gold medal.
  • (17) Informed sources in Germany said Merkel was livid about the reports that the NSA had bugged her phone and was convinced, on the basis of a German intelligence investigation, that the reports were utterly substantiated.
  • (18) | Hugh Muir Read more Wherever Labour people gather to discuss how to break out of the vice tightening around the party, answers fail amid sighs of utter despair.
  • (19) The IFS says similar declines emerge if you set the figure as low as 40% of median income – utterly refuting Nick Clegg's toxic line dismissing the threshold as just "poverty plus a pound" .
  • (20) "Public sector workers and their families are utterly shocked by Jeremy Clarkson's revolting comments.