Did you
know?
down and out
adjective phrase
- lacking funds, resources or prospects
- incapacitated; prostrate (overcome with weakness, lying down)
(The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
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WORD ORIGIN
As Jimmy Cox wrote, "nobody knows you when you’re down and out". Likewise, no one knows where the expression "down and out" originated. Nevertheless, it’s been the subject of countless books, novels, songs, theatre plays and films. Eric Arthur Blair, British journalist and author, better known by his pen name George Orwell, covered the topic in his very first book.
Orwell went to Paris in 1928 to try and make a living as a freelance writer. Having achieved little success, he took on low-paying jobs as a plongeur (dishwasher and kitchen help), but eventually returned to London broke and sick. These adventures formed the basis for "Down and Out in Paris and London", a semi-autobiographical tale of his experience with poverty. Orwell rose to fame with the subsequent publication of his two anti-totalitarianism classics Animal Farm and 1984.
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SYNONYMS
bankrupt, beggared, broke, defeated, derelict, destitute, finished, flat broke, impoverished, indigent, in the gutter, in the poorhouse, in the red, insolvent, moneyless, needy, on the skids, outcast, out of funds, penniless, ruined, stone broke, wiped out, living hand to mouth
(Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus)
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ANTONYMS
solvent, profiting, flourishing, in the black, rich, wealthy
(Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus)
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SMUGGLE OWAD INTO YOUR CONVERSATION TODAY:
say something like:"Reading Orwell's 'Down and Out in Paris and London' makes one realise that we still live in the best of times."