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out at the elbows



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Idioms and Phrases

Also, out at the heels or knees . 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

Toby's coat was usually out at the elbows, but he had long held, throughout the whole Isle of Axholme, a high reputation as a man of deep and singular learning.

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In him the Church of England appears a little out at the elbows, but in good heart.

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These ideas, out at the elbows, out at the knees, buttons off, somewhat raveled, will, after all, do very well for paupers.

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They are a little out at the elbows, very much out in regard to shoes, and they have not seen a real piece of money for many a weary month, but for a square meal and a handful of paper greenbacks they will dismiss a parliament, rob a museum, or levy taxes, with the utmost fidelity to their orders and with strict discipline to their master's commands.

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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.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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