Wiktionary
a. 1 (context literally of footwear hyphenated when used attributively English) In poor condition, especially due to having worn heels; worn-out, shabby. 2 (context idiomatic by extension hyphenated when used attributively English) Shabbily dressed, slovenly; impoverished. alt. 1 (context literally of footwear hyphenated when used attributively English) In poor condition, especially due to having worn heels; worn-out, shabby. 2 (context idiomatic by extension hyphenated when used attributively English) Shabbily dressed, slovenly; impoverished.
Usage examples of "down at heel".
No pressure to either side, no down at heel nor oblique wear at the toe.
Citizen Rateau was clothed, rather than dressed, in a soiled shirt, ragged breeches and tattered stockings, with shoes down at heel and faded crimson cap.
His monkey boots were cracked and down at heel and toe, but highly polished.
The projection room, which had served as governors office to many a down at heel entrepreneur, now deprived of its desks and filing cabinets, suddenly took to itself once more.
Fatty turned them all over, and at the bottom he found what he wanteda pair of elevens, down at heel and with a slit in one side.