down at heel

• down at the heel, down at the heels, down in the heel, down in the heels

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

down at heel

1. (literally, of footwear, hyphenated when used attributively) In poor condition, especially due to having worn heels; worn-out, shabby.
   • 1837, Charles Dickens, chapter 41, in The Pickwick Papers:

     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.

2. (idiomatic, by extension, hyphenated when used attributively) Shabbily dressed, slovenly; impoverished.
   • 1916, D. H. Lawrence, Twilight in Italy, 7 John:

     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.

   • 2003, Lynda Lee-Potter, "Sex-crazed fans . . .," Daily Mail (UK), 27 Dec. (retrieved 20 Jan. 2010):

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