down on one's luck
7
6.7
- idiom
:
en mala racha
- A year ago, I met a man who was down on his luck and thought I might be able to help him.
- man down on his luck
- guy down on his luck
- actor who's down on his luck
Examples
-
All right, so he's down on his luck, I'm sorry.
-
He's just down on his luck, you know?
-
You know, he must be down on his luck.
-
Just a poor man down on his luck.
-
Guy's been down on his luck.
-
Perhaps he was sick, broke, or otherwise down on his luck.
Fiction book (2002) -
"Can you spare a dollar for a man down on his luck?"
Fiction book (2002) -
A girl needs a friend when she's down on her luck.
-
When Ptolemaios came here he was down on his luck and looking for refuge.
-
A year ago, I met a man who was down on his luck and thought I might be able to help him.
Synonyms
91
1.0
Having bad luck that causes problems
43
4.1
Not successful when you try to get something you want
26
7.2
Unlucky in a way that makes people feel sorry
2
5.3
A person who has many bad things happen to them
2
7.9
Having a lot of bad luck that causes many problems
1
9.9
In a situation with no choice and no help to fix a problem
1
7.1
Unlucky and in need of help
Being very short of money and struggling to pay for things
Antonyms
How Unlucky
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'experiencing misfortune' follows directly from the constituents: 'down' (feeling low) combined with 'luck' (fortune), with 'on one's' indicating the state is caused by that luck. This compositional logic is common cross-linguistically and follows normal English patterns, so a B1 learner who knows the parts is likely to infer the overall meaning.
Etymology
Down on one's luck may come from a simple picture: the word down makes us think of being low or pushed down, and your luck being low means things are not going well. That's why the phrase means 'having bad luck' or 'going through a hard time'.