download
    v 1: transfer a file or program from a central computer to a
         smaller computer or to a computer at a remote location
         [ant: upload]

download
 vt.

    To transfer data or (esp.) code from a far-away system (especially a larger
    host system) over a digital communications link to a nearby system
    (especially a smaller client system. Oppose upload.

    Historical use of these terms was at one time associated with transfers
    from large timesharing machines to PCs or peripherals (download) and
    vice-versa (upload). The modern usage relative to the speaker (rather than
    as an indicator of the size and role of the machines) evolved as machine
    categories lost most of their former functional importance.

download
downloading

    To transfer data from one computer to another.
   Downloading usually refers to transfer from a larger "host"
   system (especially a server or mainframe) to a smaller
   "client" system, especially a microcomputer or specialised
   peripheral, and "upload" usually means from small to large.

   Others hold that, technically, download means "receive" and
   upload means "send", irrespective of the size of the systems
   involved.

   Note that in communications between ground and space,
   space-to-earth transmission is always "down" and the reverse
   "up", regardless of size.  So far the in-space machines have
   invariably been smaller; thus the upload/download distinction
   has been reversed from its usual sense.

   [Jargon File]

   (2003-11-04)