down and out
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Beaten.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Richard Holmes was something of an expert at the game, but he ended up as a down - and - out by the end.
She was always a defender of the down - and - out.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed on Wikipedia “Irreversible binomial” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29). Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).
Equivalents & related
Common questions
What does “down and out” mean?
Beaten.
Is “down and out” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.
What is the closest equivalent?
“thất cơ lỡ vận” (Tiếng Việt) — near equivalent.