washed-up
- adjective
- /ˈwɔʃt ʌp/
- Offensive
- 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?
- What, you and I overpacking like a couple of washed up old drag Queens?
- Occasionally I get twinges of like am IA washed up one hit wonder sitcom actor and has Hollywood cast me away?
- What do you do as a fucking washed up Navy SEAL CIA guy?
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
No longer fashionable or useful
Too old to be as useful or attractive as before
Old and no longer useful because of age
No longer effective or popular
Certain to fail and unable to recover
Antonyms
How Successful
Surface Forms
Morphology
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'.