English

Alternative forms

• down at the heel, down at the heels, down in the heel, down in the heels

Adjective

down at heel

1. (literally of footwear, hyphenated when used attributively) In poor condition, especially due to having worn heels; worn-out, shabby.
   • 1837, Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers, ch. 41:

     A pair of Oxford-mixture trousers . . .fell in a series of not the most graceful folds over a pair of shoes sufficiently down at heel to display a pair of very soiled white stockings.

2. (idiomatic, by extension, hyphenated when used attributively) Shabbily dressed, slovenly; impoverished.
   • 1916, D. H. Lawrence, Twilight in Italy, 7 John:

     He was a queer shoot, again, in his unkempt longish hair and slovenly clothes, a sort of very vulgar down-at-heel American in appearance.

   • 2003, Lynda Lee-Potter, "Sex-crazed fans . . .," Daily Mail (UK), 27 Dec. (retrieved 20 Jan. 2010):

     Last year, he was down at heel, homeless and had an erratic relationship with his family.