down-and-out

Penniless and homeless

Down-and-out describes someone who has hit bottom—homeless, penniless, without prospects.

The phrase evokes a boxer knocked down and counted out, unable to continue.

As a noun, a down-and-out is such a person: The shelter serves the city's down-and-outs.

The hyphenated form is standard, though "down and out" appears without hyphens after a verb: After losing everything, he was completely down and out.

destitution

impoverished

Extremely lacking in money

pennilessCompletely without money
brokeLacking any funds
indigentExtremely poor, lacking necessities

bankrupt · insolvent · penury · beggarly · pauperized · hard-up · moneyless · squalor · dispossessed · underprivileged

dejection

hopelessness

State without hope

despairTotal absence of hope
despondencyProfound loss of hope
demoralizedStripped of confidence

defeated · discouraged · dispirited · crestfallen · forlorn · disheartened · melancholy · gloom · bleakness · resignation

homelessness

unhoused

Lacking stable housing

vagrantHomeless itinerant person
transientTemporary, soon departing
displacedShifted from proper location

panhandling · shelter · encampment · squatting · alleyway · cardboard-box · hostel · mission · drifter · beggar

resilience

struggle

Labored effort against resistance

survivalRemaining alive against odds
comebackRecovery after decline
recoveryRegaining what was lost

perseverance · endurance · grit · determination · tenacity · fortitude · adversity · hardship · overcoming · fighting

down-and-out

impoverished

hopelessness

unhoused

struggle

down-and-out

Opposites

Categories

Family