Definition of Down-and-out

1. Noun. A person who is destitute. "He tried to help the down-and-out"

Generic synonyms: Have-not, Poor Person

2. Adjective. Lacking resources (or any prospect of resources).
Similar to: Unsuccessful

Definition of Down-and-out

1. Adjective. (alternative spelling of down and out) ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Lexicographical Neighbors of Down-and-out

dowitchers
dowl
dowlas
dowlases
dowle
dowles
dowless
dowlne
dowlnes
dowlney
dowls
down
down(a)
down(p)
down-
down-and-out (current term)
down-and-outer
down-and-outers
down-at-heel
down-bow
down-gyved
down-home
down-line
down-low
down-regulation
down-set
down-style
down-time
down-to-earth
down-town

Literary usage of Down-and-out

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. History of Dakota Territory by George Washington Kingsbury (1915)
"... is making a bed of thorns and when he returns to New York after he steps down and out of office, he will perhaps entertain a prejudice against Dakota. ..."

2. Refraction of the Human Eye and Methods of Estimating the Refraction by James Thorington (1916)
"27. up and out, or down and in, or down and out; for instance, the following : Right Eye, 2 Prism base down meridian of the base-apex line 75°; ..."

3. Writing of Today: Models of Journalistic Prose by John William Cunliffe, Gerhard Richard Lomer (1922)
"I can go up a 55 girls who look down and out. A pretty flight of stairs now, for the first time in face and worn-out soles are a signal for several years, ..."

4. The Eye and Nervous System: Their Diagnostic Relations by William Campbell Posey, William Gibson Spiller (1906)
"In all movements of depression of the eye, whether straight down, or down and in, or down and out, the lower lid is simultaneously depressed by the inferior ..."

5. Heart Songs and Home Songs by Denis Aloysius McCarthy (1916)
"The "Down and Out" man who wins in the fight for fame, Who wins in the war for gold, The welkin rings with his lauded name Wherever his deeds are told. ..."

6. Tales of the Trail: A Book of Western Sketches in Verse by James William Foley (1914)
"... DOWN AND OUT USED to brag when work was slack, Nothin' else to do, Couldn't put him on his back, No use tryin' to. Said he'd been in many a bout, ..."

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