英和和英

形容詞

out at elbow (not comparable)

1. Of a coat, jumper, etc., worn through at the elbows; of clothes, shabby, in poor condition.
   • 1894, Ethel Turner, Seven Little Australians, published 1912, page 18:

     [T]he children [...] went about in shabby, out-at-elbow clothes, and much worn boots.

2. In needy circumstances.
   • 1890, Joseph Jacobs, “Jack Hannaford”, in English Fairy Tales, page 40:

     There was an old soldier who had been long in the wars—so long, that he was quite out-at-elbows, and did not know where to go to find a living.