down-and-out
without any money, or means of support, or prospects; destitute; penniless.
without physical strength or stamina; disabled; incapacitated.
too physically weakened by repeated defeats to qualify as a competent professional boxer.
Also down-and-outer. a person who is down-and-out.
Origin of down-and-out
1Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use down-and-out in a sentence
They were down-and-outers, all of them, human derelicts recruited from the park benches and cheap flop houses of Los Angeles.
The Cavern of the Shining Ones | Hal K. Wells
British Dictionary definitions for down-and-out
without any means of livelihood; impoverished and, often, socially outcast
a person who is destitute and, often, homeless; a social outcast or derelict
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with down-and-out
Lacking funds or prospects; destitute, penniless. For example, After losing his job, car, and home, he was completely down and out. This term probably originated in boxing, where it alludes to the fighter who is knocked down and stays down for a given time, thereby losing the bout. [c. 1900] Also see down for the count.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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