"down on one's luck" meaning in English

See down on one's luck in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Audio: en-au-down on one's luck.ogg Forms: more down on one's luck [comparative], most down on one's luck [superlative]
Head templates: {{en-adj}} down on one's luck (comparative more down on one's luck, superlative most down on one's luck)
  1. (idiomatic) Unlucky or undergoing a period of bad luck, especially with respect to financial matters. Tags: idiomatic
    Sense id: en-down_on_one's_luck-en-adj-hVCoY-dX Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Alternative forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "more down on one's luck",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "most down on one's luck",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "down on one's luck (comparative more down on one's luck, superlative most down on one's luck)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1895, Marie Corelli, The Sorrows of Satan, →OCLC, page 14:",
          "text": "I'm sorry to hear you are down on your luck ;",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1915, Edward Stratemeyer, chapter 28, in The Rover Boys in Business:",
          "text": "If Crabtree is down on his luck he will most likely be willing to do anything for money.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": ", Episode 16",
          "text": "--He is down on his luck. He asked me to ask you to ask somebody named Boylan, a billsticker, to give him a job as a sandwichman."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1954 April 19, “The New Pictures”, in Time:",
          "text": "Willie \"tries to resist\"—being, as the synopsis explains, \"an attractive and intelligent girl who is simply down on her luck in the ruins of postwar Germany.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008 July 1, Mel Antonen, “Rays, A's using same formula for success”, in USA Today, retrieved 2008-11-03:",
          "text": "Pitcher Kyle Lohse, 29, who has had unsuccessful stints with the Minnesota Twins, Cincinnati Reds and Philadelphia Phillies, seems to have found a home with the St. Louis Cardinals, a team that has a knack for turning around pitchers down on their luck.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Unlucky or undergoing a period of bad luck, especially with respect to financial matters."
      ],
      "id": "en-down_on_one's_luck-en-adj-hVCoY-dX",
      "links": [
        [
          "Unlucky",
          "unlucky"
        ],
        [
          "undergo",
          "undergo"
        ],
        [
          "financial",
          "financial"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Unlucky or undergoing a period of bad luck, especially with respect to financial matters."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-down on one's luck.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/4a/En-au-down_on_one%27s_luck.ogg/En-au-down_on_one%27s_luck.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/En-au-down_on_one%27s_luck.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "down on one's luck"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "more down on one's luck",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "most down on one's luck",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "down on one's luck (comparative more down on one's luck, superlative most down on one's luck)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English adjectives",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1895, Marie Corelli, The Sorrows of Satan, →OCLC, page 14:",
          "text": "I'm sorry to hear you are down on your luck ;",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1915, Edward Stratemeyer, chapter 28, in The Rover Boys in Business:",
          "text": "If Crabtree is down on his luck he will most likely be willing to do anything for money.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": ", Episode 16",
          "text": "--He is down on his luck. He asked me to ask you to ask somebody named Boylan, a billsticker, to give him a job as a sandwichman."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1954 April 19, “The New Pictures”, in Time:",
          "text": "Willie \"tries to resist\"—being, as the synopsis explains, \"an attractive and intelligent girl who is simply down on her luck in the ruins of postwar Germany.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008 July 1, Mel Antonen, “Rays, A's using same formula for success”, in USA Today, retrieved 2008-11-03:",
          "text": "Pitcher Kyle Lohse, 29, who has had unsuccessful stints with the Minnesota Twins, Cincinnati Reds and Philadelphia Phillies, seems to have found a home with the St. Louis Cardinals, a team that has a knack for turning around pitchers down on their luck.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Unlucky or undergoing a period of bad luck, especially with respect to financial matters."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Unlucky",
          "unlucky"
        ],
        [
          "undergo",
          "undergo"
        ],
        [
          "financial",
          "financial"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Unlucky or undergoing a period of bad luck, especially with respect to financial matters."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-down on one's luck.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/4a/En-au-down_on_one%27s_luck.ogg/En-au-down_on_one%27s_luck.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/En-au-down_on_one%27s_luck.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "down on one's luck"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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