down in the dumps
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
It is a question of personality, or more precisely how this is projected in the voice down the telephone wires.
‘ But he was pretty down in the dumps and I felt terrible because I couldn't be there to make his Christmas complete.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).
Common questions
What does “down in the dumps” mean?
Unhappy.
Is “down in the dumps” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.