out at the elbows

Idioms  

1. Also,. Wearing clothes that are worn out or torn; poor. For example, When we last saw Phil he was out at the elbows. These expressions, dating from the late 1500s and early 1600s, can refer to clothes worn through at these points as well as to a person too poor to replace them.

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Example Sentences

In the razzle-dazzle world of huck-sterdom, whose currency is superlatives, plain-talking, unassuming Ben Duffy sticks out at the elbows.

From Time Magazine Archive

For the plan of Grounds for Divorce is thin, almost out at the elbows, while the Little Angel is nourished with sustaining spice of satire.

From Time Magazine Archive

I knew that I was the son of a barnman, and that my father's coat might be out at the elbows.

From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Volume 16 by Various

When everything seemed to have "gone to the dogs," and his last suit of clothes was out at the elbows, she astonished him by getting a new suit.

From Little Bobtail or The Wreck of the Penobscot. by Optic, Oliver

Not only was his working jacket out at the elbows, but his street coat was shiny at the seams.

From Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford by Chester, George Randolph