in the gutter

Idioms  

1. Appropriate to or from a squalid, degraded condition. For example, The language in that book belongs in the gutter. An antonym, out of the gutter, means “away from vulgarity or sordidness,” as in That joke was quite innocent; get your mind out of the gutter. This idiom uses gutter in the sense of “a conduit for filthy waste.” [Mid-1800s]

---

Example Sentences

“One day you’re being shown in a museum, and then the next day you’re back in the gutter,” Davis said from Berlin, wearing a casual black hoodie and speaking from a light-filled room with posters and photographs tacked to every surface of the wall.

From Los Angeles Times

He made a big wager on natural gas when prices were in the gutter, and he has funded Comstock’s exploration at a time when its rivals are sticking with Wall Street’s strict capital edicts.

From The Wall Street Journal

One of the guys in the unit, raw, green, just lost it, crying, screaming—threw his M60 in the gutter and ran straight in the front door of a Whole Foods.

From Slate

We're going to play in the gutter.

From Salon

There, the Wildean axiom “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars” is viscerally felt — and it’s a sentiment that pulses through the cultural blood of the city.

From New York Times

Related Words

• bankrupt
• broke
• destitute
• impoverished
• indigent
• needy