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

See Examples For:

out at the elbows

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 my coat wears out at the elbows I seek the tailor and am measured for another.

From Stories by American Authors, Volume 5 by Henry James

Her father goes clad in russet— All brown and seedy at that; His coat is out at the elbows, And he wears a shocking bad hat.

From Recitations for the Social Circle by James Clarence Harvey