Hi, guys. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on five "down" idioms.
In this lesson, we're going to look at five idioms that use the word, "down" in them.
So how it's going to work is I'm going to explain the idiom, then I'm going to look
at a sentence, and then you're going to tell me if you can figure out the meaning of this
idiom based on the sentence. So, again, idioms are used in every single language. English,
just like any other language, has tons of expressions that are used colloquially and,
you know, you have to know these expressions to understand parts of conversation. So let's
First one: "Down in the dumps". So the sentence says:
"Since her cat died, she's been down in the dumps."
So you think about the experience of a person's cat dying or losing a pet, and how would that
person feel? Probably not very good, not very well, not healthy. So, "down in the dumps"
actually means sad or depressed. Right? So this actually comes from... Sad and depressed,
let's see... This comes from the word "dumps" which kind of means garbage, so you're kind
of like rolling in sadness, and filth, and depression. So think about it that way. So
you always use the verb, "to be" with this. So: "I am down in the dumps.", "I have been
down in the dumps.", "He is down in the dumps." Etcetera.
Let's look at the second one. This one says: "Down the drain". If we look at the sentence
which says: "All my money went down the drain."
If you understand the word, "drain", you can probably understand this sentence and the
meaning of this idiom. So the drain is that part, you know, when you wash your hands either
in the kitchen or in the bathroom, you have a sink, and the drain is where all the water
goes. So when the water goes down the drain, it's basically lost forever. So this is the
meaning of this idiom. If something goes down the drain, it means it's lost forever; never
to be gotten back again. All right? So, almost wasted, in a way. So imagine if you do a lot
of work on a project and then for some reason, the project is cancelled. All you can say:
"All my work went down the drain. It was wasted. It's lost forever. I can't get it back." Okay?
Next one: "Down-to-earth". This is basically an adjective expression that we use to describe
a person. So: "I want a girl who's down-to-earth."
If you're looking for a partner, or a boyfriend, or a girlfriend - a down-to-earth person is
someone who is practical. Okay? Someone who... Here we go, practical. Okay. I apologize for
the letter "p" there. Someone who does not believe in supernatural things, someone who
likes to get things done and who is very practical, nice, humble, polite. So this is a down-to-earth
person; they're not up in the sky. Okay? They're down-to-earth.
"Down and out". So let's look at the sentence: "She gambled all her money away." So she went
to the casino, she spent all her money. "She's down and out!"
So if you're down and out, it means that you have no support and no money. Right? So having
no support or money. So this can refer to a couple of different situations. This one
specifically says, you know: "I'm down and out, I have nothing left." Maybe... Maybe
I'm homeless, maybe I'm without a family or something like this. You can also be, for
example, unconscious and this also means you're down and out. So if you're walking... Walking,
I apologize. Watching a boxing match and one of the boxers gets knocked out, you can say:
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. He's down and out." Like he's not going to get back
up and no one is going to help him up, so he basically will have no support in getting
up as well I guess. So, yeah, down and out, you have no support and no money.
Finally: "Down to the wire". So if something is down to the wire it means it goes until
the very last moment. So if I have this sentence: "The game came down to the wire."
Often we use the verb, "come", or the verb, "go" with this expression. So basically it
means until the very last moment. Until the last moment. Okay, so if you're writing an
essay for school and you're writing the essay at 1 o'clock in the morning or 2 o'clock in
the morning before it's due or the morning that that essay is due, you can say: "My essay
came down to the wire. I wrote it at the very last moment, I finished before it was meant
to be given to my teacher." So we talk about sports, like a game that's very close and
somebody scores in the final minute of the game. In soccer, if someone scores in the
90th minute, you can say: "The game came down to the wire until the very last moment it
Okay, guys. So one more time, let's review these idioms. We have: "Down in the dumps",
which means you're sad, depressed. We have: "Down the drain", so if you lose something
forever, it's down the drain whether it's work, whether it's money. Okay? "Down-to-earth",
a person who's practical, honest, nice. "Down and out", you have no support, you're out,
you're knocked out. And number five, we have: "Down to the wire", which means something
came down to the very last moment.
So once again, if you'd like to check your understanding of these idioms, you can check
out the quiz on www.engvid.com. Please subscribe to my YouTube channel. And I'll see you guys