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washed-up

washed-up

22 6.5
No longer successful or popular after being famous
  • adjective
  • /ˈwɔʃt ʌp/
  • Offensive
translation icon : acabado
  • It's sad to see him as a washed-up musician, no longer performing to sold-out crowds.

What, you and I overpacking like a couple of washed up old drag Queens?

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Examples

  • The mildly despicable Pat Hobby is washed up, an ineffectual relic of the silent-film days, hanging on by a thread.

    Academic text (2000)
  • A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004) divides the stereotype a different way, with John Travolta as the washed-up, alcoholic English professor and Gabriel Macht as the blocked, alcoholic writer.

    Academic text (2007)
  • Old is one thing, but this poor fellow, whoever he is, looks pretty much washed up.

    Fiction book (2001)
  • A lawyer and a washed-up baseball player.

  • Jeter is going to be the man until he clearly is washed up in the last 3 years.

    Blog text (24)
  • But the fact is I'm washed up, as the Yanks say.

  • Birdie was a washed-up model.

  • If people aren't coming to your shows, it's because you're washed up.

  • Hanks stars as Jimmy Dugan, a washed-up ballplayer whose big league days are over.

    Blog text (4)
  • The Post interview marked perhaps the lowest point he reached in the decade, but it fixed his image as a washed-up, self-pitying writer, a miserable caretaker of his talent, the relic of a distant and unlamented era.

    Academic text (2000)

Synonyms

outmoded
vswashed-up
11 6.5

No longer fashionable or useful

is about losing success or influence rather than merely being out of style
over-the-hill
vswashed-up
  • Offensive
5 7.9

Too old to be as useful or attractive as before

focuses on loss of success or fame rather than age as cause
superannuated
vswashed-up
  • UK
1 9.9

Old and no longer useful because of age

stresses loss of former influence or popularity, not just age
washed
vswashed-up
  • Offensive
8.4

No longer effective or popular

has the same meaning but is the more established expression
sunk
vswashed-up
7.5

Certain to fail and unable to recover

means loss of former fame or success rather than inevitable total failure

Antonyms

1.6

You have achieved what you wanted

189 4.6

Able to change what people think or do

How Successful

celebrated
1 3.2
successful
1.6
washed-up
  • Offensive
22 6.5
unknown
629 2.3

Surface Forms

washed-up positive

Morphology

washed-up = wash up (semi-transparent) = wash + up + ed

Formed from the phrasal verb 'wash up' with '-ed' to make an adjective; the figurative meaning 'no longer successful' is a metaphorical extension of the literal 'washed ashore', so learners will not always derive the exact sense.

Etymology

Washed-up comes from the image of things the sea washes up onto the shore, often leaving them broken or useless. So calling someone washed-up means they are 'no longer successful' or 'past their best'.