Word.ws English Dictionary

down but not out

UK/ˈdaʊn bət nɒt ˈaʊt/US/ˈdaʊn bət nɑt ˈaʊt/

down but not out adjective: temporarily incapacitated but not permanently defeated.

Adjective

down but not out (not comparable)

  1. (idiomatic) Temporarily incapacitated but not permanently defeated.
    • He raised dim eyes to her, eyes that seemed already filmed with death's opaque curtains, but bravely, slowly smiled. "I'm down, but not out, darlin'. That brute of a doctor jolted me hard; I nearly took the count—but I'm—still in the ring.[…]"1907 October, [Hannibal] Hamlin Garland, “Marshall Haney’s Sentence”, in Money Magic: A Novel, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC, page 333
    • The intention is not to make it a hotel for downs and outs, the riffraff of Chicago’s slums, but to have it a hotel where men who are ‘down’ but not ‘out’ can obtain comfortable rooms and wholesome food at nominal prices.1913, The Independent, volume LXXV, New York, N.Y.: Published for the proprietors, →OCLC, page 638, column 1

Origin of down but not out

A reference to the sport of boxing, where a boxer has been incapacitated by an opponent but not yet knocked out.

Questions about down but not out

What does down but not out mean?
Down but not out means temporarily incapacitated but not permanently defeated.
What part of speech is down but not out?
Down but not out is an adjective.
How do you pronounce down but not out?
Down but not out is pronounced /ˈdaʊn bət nɒt ˈaʊt/ (UK).

Words near down but not out in the dictionary

  1. down bad
  2. down below
  3. down bow
  4. down bows
  5. down bubble
  6. down but not out
  7. down cellar
  8. down cold
  9. down dog
  10. down dogs
  11. down east

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: down but not out (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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