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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

down but not out en · ADJ

Pronunciation

  • /ˈdaʊn bət nɑt ˈaʊt/ (General-American)
  • (Australia) audio
  • /ˈdaʊn bət nɒt ˈaʊt/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

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

Meanings

  1. (idiomatic, not-comparable) Temporarily incapacitated but not permanently defeated.
    • By midnight, two hours after the polls had closed, the first results showed a massive 10 per cent swing right across the country. […] A defeated David Cameron and his wife, Samantha, left the count down but not out. 2010, Peter Snowdon, “The Makings of a Landslide”, in Back from the Brink: The Inside Story of the Tory Resurrection, London: HarperPress, HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 5:
    • 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:
    • 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:

Relateds

bloody, but unbowed · fluctuat nec mergitur · down and out

Translations (2)

fi maassa muttei tyrmätty (temporarily incapacitated but not permanently defeated) · cmn 挫而不折 (temporarily incapacitated but not permanently defeated)