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  • 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.

Hi, guys. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on five "down" idioms.

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