Meaning of down at heel | Babel Free

Definitions

1. In poor condition, especially due to having worn heels; worn-out, shabby.
   literally
2. Shabbily dressed, slovenly; impoverished; shabby, dilapidated.
   broadly, idiomatic

Examples

“A pair of Oxford-mixture trousers […] fell in a series of not the most graceful folds over a pair of shoes sufficiently down at heel to display a pair of very soiled white stockings.”

“He was a queer shoot, again, in his unkempt longish hair and slovenly clothes, a sort of very vulgar down-at-heel American in appearance.”

“For the likes of her, the down-at-heels support of Hoboken pier was plenty good enough.”

“Last year, he was down at heel, homeless and had an erratic relationship with his family.”

“A down-at-the-heels advertising copywriter when he hit on the idea, he originally meant it as a joke.”

“Researchers analysed 500 interviews with people in right-wing strongholds in France and Germany, places such as Gelsenkirchen-Ost, a down-at-heel suburb north-east of Essen blighted with high levels of unemployment and where anti-immigrant party Alternativ für Deutschland (AfD) garnered nearly a third of the vote in the 2017 elections […]”

CEFR level