downstream

adverb or adjective

down·​stream ˈdau̇n-ˈstrēm 

1

: in the direction of or nearer to the mouth of a stream

floating downstream

located two miles downstream

2

: in or toward the latter stages of a usually industrial process or the stages (such as marketing) after manufacture

improving profits downstream

downstream products

3

biochemistry : toward the end of a series of cellular processes : following a linked molecular event occurring in a sequence

But by looking downstream of the tumor suppressors [genes] at the proteins they influence, drug developers hope to find good targets.

—Marcia Barinaga

Examples of downstream in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The debris had been washed downstream, taking everything with it. —Emmanuel Igunza, NPR, 10 May 2024

The boy was also presumed to have fallen into the rapid water and taken downstream. —Stephen Sorace, Fox News, 8 May 2024

Their clichés about upstream septic-tank pollution flowing downstream feel trite. —Armond White, National Review, 8 May 2024

District officials insist that figure is misleading and that the reserves are spoken for — or will be once state budget reductions roll downstream and the next round of contract negotiations conclude. —Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times, 8 May 2024

Then, even later, pristine human bone remains were spotted downstream—including an intact foot in a hiking boot. —Leyton Cassidy, Longreads, 7 May 2024

Scott Salmon, executive director of Friends of the White River, said these structures create sort of a sideways whirlpool that recirculates water at the dam's base rather than flushing it downstream. —Karl Schneider, The Indianapolis Star, 6 May 2024

Ancient deposits of glacial sands carried downstream from the Sierra Nevada formed the dunes, shaped by the winds and tides, once reaching almost 120 feet tall and stretching some 800 feet inland. —Judith Prieve, The Mercury News, 5 May 2024

But now those platforms lie downstream of TikTok’s creative wellspring, waiting for bits of its most popular content to drift into the open internet. —New York Times, 19 Apr. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1591, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

downstream

adverb or adjective

down·​stream ˈdau̇n-ˈstrēm 

: in the direction a stream is flowing

Medical Definition

downstream

adverb or adjective

down·​stream ˌdau̇n-ˈstrēm 

1

: in the same direction along a molecule of DNA or RNA as that in which transcription and translation take place and toward the end having a hydroxyl group attached to the position labeled 3′ in the terminal nucleotide

a nucleotide sequence located downstream from the regulatory gene

effects on the expression of downstream genes

compare upstream sense 1

2

: toward the end of a series of cellular processes : following a linked molecular event occurring in a sequence

But by looking downstream of the tumor suppressors [genes] at the proteins they influence, drug developers hope to find good targets.

—Marcia Barinaga, Science

The tyrosine kinase activity of phosphorylated EGFR [epidermal growth factor receptor] in cancer cells results in the phosphorylation of downstream proteins that incite cell proliferation, invasion, metastasis, and inhibition of apoptosis.

—Jonathan E. Dowell and John D. Minna, The New England Journal of Medicine