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.

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

out at the elbows

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

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

George was a tall stripling, out at the elbows, in at the knees, with his red knuckled hands thrust a long way through his tight coat.

From Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour by Robert Smith Surtees

Some had the mange; some had blear eyes; some had but one; many were out at the elbows; and not a few down at the toes.

From Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour by Robert Smith Surtees

I am thinking how I will never get a clean shirt to my back; how my coat will always be out at the elbows; and how I never will get my breeches to stay up.

From Boswell's Correspondence with the Honourable Andrew Erskine, and His Journal of a Tour to Corsica by George Birkbeck Norman Hill

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---