Definition of "downstate" [downstate]

• The southerly section of a state in the United States. (noun)
• To, from, or in the southerly section of a state. (adverb)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Lacking appeal downstate is code for "white people won't vote for him.""
• "He grew up as a young black man in downstate Illinois at a time when racial attitudes there were only marginally more enlightened than in Alabama and was elected to statewide office on an essentially nonracial basis."
• "People in downstate are totally disgusted withChicago politics."