down-at-the-heels

American  

[doun-uht-thuh-heelz] / ˈdaʊn ət ðəˈhilz /

Also down-at-the-heel;

adjective

1. having a shabby, run-down appearance; seedy.

   He is rapidly becoming a down-at-the-heels drifter and a drunk.

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Etymology

Origin of down-at-the-heels

First recorded in 1695–1705

Example Sentences

I hate to be unkind, but the hotel is a bit down-at-the-heels.

From Literature

Dee, 52, bought the down-at-the-heels house from the city in 2013 for $16,650.

From Seattle Times

That film, with screenplay by Mr. Bogdanovich and Mr. McMurtry, centers on life and love in a down-at-the-heels town in the early 1950s.

From New York Times

Boston has changed radically since its down-at-the-heels days of the 1970s, when the city found itself in the national spotlight over the turmoil brought on by school desegregation, and of the late 1980s, when the case of Charles Stuart again inflamed simmering racial tensions.

From Seattle Times

In chatty, gimlet-eyed prose, she explores a certain glamorous but down-at-the-heels existence that SoCal’s house-poor but friend-rich know all too well.

From Los Angeles Times