downlying
Downlying is an old-fashioned term with two related meanings: the time you retire to bed for the night, and in Scottish English, the period of labor in childbirth — when a woman was said to be 'lying down' through travail.
Definitions
Downlying is an old-fashioned term with two related meanings: the time you retire to bed for the night, and in Scottish English, the period of labor in childbirth — when a woman was said to be 'lying down' through travail. The childbirth sense reflects historical language around confinement and labor that was once widely used. Both meanings center on the act of lying down at a significant moment, whether sleep or the hard work of bringing a new life into the world. A genuinely archaic term, but poetic in its plainness.
The midwife stayed through the downlying and well into the following morning before the baby finally arrived.
Comments
(Scotland) The travail in childbirth.
Comments
Show 1 more dictionary-style sense (imported)
The time of retiring to rest.
Comments
Have a better definition?
Add your own interpretation of "downlying".
⚡About Tech, Dev & AI slang
The vocabulary of software engineers, AI researchers, and anyone living in a terminal or on GitHub — from LLM to MCP, CORS to vibe coding, agentic to enshittification.
See all Tech, Dev & AI slang on Slangora.
Tags
Other words near "downlying" (D)
Browse all slang words starting with D.