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.
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(Scotland) The travail in childbirth.
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The time of retiring to rest.
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