1
as in weak
lacking bodily strength
I'm over the flu, but I still feel down-and-out
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in impoverished
lacking money or material possessions
a soup kitchen where the down-and-out daily line up for a hot meal
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
variants
or down-and-outer
as in have-not
Related Words
Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
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Recent Examples of down-and-out
Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 31 Dec. 2025
Denver Broncos at Kansas City Chiefs — Coming off their first loss since September, the Broncos get a down-and-out Chiefs team playing its third-string quarterback.
—Jim Reineking, USA Today, 25 Dec. 2025
The feature is based on the 2018 documentary of the same name that told the story of a down-and-out fighter who becomes involved with one of the country’s top youth boxing programs.
—Aaron Couch, HollywoodReporter, 25 Nov. 2025
Shroud killed Robert’s dad and now the down-and-out hero is on the warpath.
—Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 22 Oct. 2025
And those Berger hallmarks are certainly on display in the new one, a drama about a dandy named Lord Doyle, a down-and-out con man and gambling addict on the brink of a breakdown in the kitschy gaming hub of Macau.
—Glenn Whipp, Boston Herald, 17 Oct. 2025
Fraser stars as a down-and-out American actor adrift in Tokyo in Rental Family, which was filmed in Japan.
—Liz Shackleton, Deadline, 18 Sep. 2025
Gardin showed us a country where the medieval and the modern, the down-and-out and la dolce vita, seemed to coexist.
—Max Norman, New Yorker, 6 Sep. 2025
Befitting the down-and-out semis, Analog Devices put up good numbers, causing a headlong rush into internet of things (IoT).
—Jim Cramer, CNBC, 24 Aug. 2025
Adjective
While the aggressively noirish script (by Kubrick and his friend Howard Sackler, who had also written Fear and Desire) about a down-and-out boxer who falls for a gangster’s moll sometimes comes off like a parody, Kubrick is clearly coming into his own here as an artist.
—Recent Examples of Synonyms for down-and-out
Adjective
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New orders contracted for a fourth month and export bookings remained weak, based on the ISM data.—
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Getting too little of either can lead to weak, brittle bones, and too much can also cause problems (like kidney stones or nausea).—
Adjective
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The United States must step away from war and send food to Venezuela’s impoverished people.—
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Leaning into the superstition that someone with albinism can bring wealth to those in need, Panay’s story follows a young boy with albinism (Boubacar Dembèlè), whose voice is believed to hold special powers that can protect impoverished miners risking their lives for gold.—
Noun
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With fewer homes available for median earners, today's housing market is widening the gap between the haves and have-nots, with younger Americans less likely to buy a home, the study says.—
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Based on the video game from Bethesda Game Studios, Fallout is the story of haves and have-nots in a world in which there’s almost nothing left to have.—
Adjective
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Lord & Taylor shut all its stores in 2019 after HBC sold the weakened retailer, and Hudson’s Bay in Canada liquidated last year, ending its 355-year run.—
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Salmonella can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in infants, young children, older people, pregnant persons, and those with weakened immune systems.—
Adjective
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Flooding may occur in poor drainage and urban areas.—
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In recent games, KU’s communication has been pretty poor on defense and that’s led to players taking (and too often missing) wide-open 3-pointers.—
Noun
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Lower than proletariat workers, the lumpenproletariat includes the indigent and the unemployable, those cast out of the workforce with no recourse, or those who can’t enter it in the first place, such as young workers in times of economic depression.—
Adjective
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The reality is that although Venezuela has vast reserves—about 17% of the entire planet’s oil is under Venezuelan soil—its production is feeble.—
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The hottest quarterback right now is Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence, who had his career-best day last week against the feeble Jets.—
Noun
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Brian Niccol, the coffee chain boss, is paid a pauper’s sum of nearly $100 million.—
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In it, novice nun Viridiana (Silvia Pinal) does her utmost to maintain her Catholic principles, but her lecherous uncle (Fernando Rey) and a motley assemblage of paupers force her to confront the limits of her idealism.—
Cite this Entry
“Down-and-out.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/down-and-out. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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