Learn English - 5 "DOWN" Idioms

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

look at them.

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

was decided."

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

next time.