Meanings
- idiomaticnot comparableTemporarily 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 52 more examples
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 333The 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
A reference to the sport of boxing, where a boxer has been incapacitated by an opponent but not yet knocked out.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Mandarin 挫而不折
- 挫而不折 (cuò'érbùzhé)temporarily incapacitated but not permanently defeated
Finnish maassa muttei tyrmätty
- maassa muttei tyrmättytemporarily incapacitated but not permanently defeated
Cite this entry
down but not out. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/down%20but%20not%20out
“down but not out.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/down%20but%20not%20out. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “down but not out,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/down%20but%20not%20out.
Source: down but not out on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.