down-and-out
adjective
1
2
: physically weakened or incapacitated
down-and-out
noun
or down-and-outer
Synonyms
Examples of down-and-out in a Sentence
I'm over the flu, but I still feel down-and-out
a soup kitchen where the down-and-out daily line up for a hot meal
Recent Examples on the Web
Earlier drafts of the script had a darker, noir thriller centered around a down-and-out hero drowning his pain in tequila and painkillers.
—
Meredith Woerner, Variety, 4 May 2024
Adapted from Sara Gruen’s 2006 best-seller, the story follows the young Jacob Jankowski (Grant Gustin), a vet school dropout who stumbles into a job with a down-and-out circus in the early 1930s.
—Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY, 22 Mar. 2024
Pyle, as Doom’s down-and-out mom, surprises with a deep, melodious bark of a voice, which matches Cammish’s own talented howl.
—Robyn Bahr, The Hollywood Reporter, 7 Mar. 2024
But the sight of a down-and-out Dan Aykroyd in a Santa suit eating a slab of salmon through his grungy cotton-candy beard fills us with the holiday spirit.
—Chris Nashawaty, EW.com, 28 Nov. 2023
Based on Candice Fox’s best-selling Crimson Lake novels, Troppo stars Jane as a down-and-out ex-cop Ted Conkaffey, who teams up with Amanda Pharell (Chamoun), an eccentric small-town private investigator to find out who murdered a local tech pioneer.
—Scott Roxborough, The Hollywood Reporter, 24 Nov. 2023
To round out the character’s down-and-out image, the movie gives the fictional Rongen a drinking problem and hot temper that the real, exceedingly amiable Rongen didn’t possess.
—Thomas Floyd, Washington Post, 16 Nov. 2023
Twenty-four years ago, a minister to the down-and-out of Des Moines took a mid-career leap into the unknown, moving his growing family west to become pastor for poverty outreach at a Pasadena church.
—Doug Smith, Los Angeles Times, 18 Oct. 2023
On a recent afternoon in the Tenderloin, a gritty district of sidewalk encampments and open-air drug dealing, Mr. Moore and I walked by immigrant mothers shepherding their children past the down-and-out residents splayed on sidewalks.
—Thomas Fuller, New York Times, 30 Aug. 2023
Meredith Woerner, Variety, 4 May 2024
Adapted from Sara Gruen’s 2006 best-seller, the story follows the young Jacob Jankowski (Grant Gustin), a vet school dropout who stumbles into a job with a down-and-out circus in the early 1930s.
—Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY, 22 Mar. 2024
Pyle, as Doom’s down-and-out mom, surprises with a deep, melodious bark of a voice, which matches Cammish’s own talented howl.
—Robyn Bahr, The Hollywood Reporter, 7 Mar. 2024
But the sight of a down-and-out Dan Aykroyd in a Santa suit eating a slab of salmon through his grungy cotton-candy beard fills us with the holiday spirit.
—Chris Nashawaty, EW.com, 28 Nov. 2023
Based on Candice Fox’s best-selling Crimson Lake novels, Troppo stars Jane as a down-and-out ex-cop Ted Conkaffey, who teams up with Amanda Pharell (Chamoun), an eccentric small-town private investigator to find out who murdered a local tech pioneer.
—Scott Roxborough, The Hollywood Reporter, 24 Nov. 2023
To round out the character’s down-and-out image, the movie gives the fictional Rongen a drinking problem and hot temper that the real, exceedingly amiable Rongen didn’t possess.
—Thomas Floyd, Washington Post, 16 Nov. 2023
Twenty-four years ago, a minister to the down-and-out of Des Moines took a mid-career leap into the unknown, moving his growing family west to become pastor for poverty outreach at a Pasadena church.
—Doug Smith, Los Angeles Times, 18 Oct. 2023
On a recent afternoon in the Tenderloin, a gritty district of sidewalk encampments and open-air drug dealing, Mr. Moore and I walked by immigrant mothers shepherding their children past the down-and-out residents splayed on sidewalks.
—Thomas Fuller, New York Times, 30 Aug. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'down-and-out.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near down-and-out
Cite this Entry
“Down-and-out.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/down-and-out. Accessed 10 May. 2024.
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