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A.Word.A.Day--down-at-the-heel

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down-at-heel (doun-at-HEEL) or down-at-the-heel adjective

1. Worn out from long use or neglect; dilapidated.

2. Shabbily dressed because of poverty; seedy.

"In Missing Susan (1991), for instance, we have a group of American tourists as seen through the eyes of a down-at-the-heels English tour guide, Rowan Rover, who has been paid to arrange a fatal accident for one of his charges." Robert F. Geary, Elegy for the Last Outlaw, The World & I, 1 Jan 1995.

This week's theme: idioms.

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