on one's uppers
English
editEtymology
editFrom uppers (“the top part of a leather shoe”), having worn through the sole.
Prepositional phrase
edit- destitute; poor.
- Synonym: down on one's uppers
- 1902, Guy Wetmore Carryl, How a Cat Was Annoyed and a Poet Was Booted:
- “We are bound toward the scuppers,
And the time has come to act,
Or we’ll both be on our uppers
For a fact!”