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What is "down-and-out"

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
down-and-out
I.adjective
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But he will still be organising 13,000 volunteers into bringing some kind of Christmas to 125,000 needy, lonely or down-and-out people.
II.noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Richard Holmes was something of an expert at the game, but he ended up as a down-and-out by the end.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
down-and-out

down-and-out \down-and-out\ adj.

  1. impoverished; -- usually implying a state of dejection as well.

  2. physically weak.

    Syn: down-and-out.

down-and-out

down-and-out \down-and-out\ n. a person who is destitute; as, he tried to help the down-and-out.

Wiktionary
down-and-out

a. (alternative spelling of down and out English)

WordNet
down-and-out

  1. adj. lacking resources (or any prospect of resources)

  2. n. a person who is destitute; "he tried to help the down-and-out"

Usage examples of "down-and-out".

He was always surrounded by musicians and stooges and writers and showgirls and down-and-out comics, and everyone else he could gather into his orbit.

For a moment he feels at one with the down-and-outs who must congregate in the gardens, judging by the debris of cider bottles, British wine bottles and beer cans.

She was such a down-and-out case, a bug-hunter, the lowest form of common and sleazy clime, and hardly able to formulate a reasonable bribe.

Not to mention two thousand square feet of moldy carpet, and enough velvet drapes to make Little Lord Fauntleroy pants for every down-and-out in Greater LA.

There were no dark alleys in which down-and-outs slept behind rubbish bins ignored by the police.

The scuzziest down-and-out dive on Skid Row was too wholesome for him.

Because the Sunday School Union decided that it should be so, and put up the money to have a replica made of the statue of Raikes that stands on the Victoria Embankment in London, where all the down-and-outs, and broken men and women may see an image of the man who was their friend.