down in the mouth
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
He's down in the mouth worse'n ever today.
That erm, made me laugh because he said to his secretary erm you know, I I honestly don't think your time is she is so down in the mouth.
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: Euphemism (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).
Common questions
What does “down in the mouth” mean?
Unhappy.
Is “down in the mouth” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.