down at heel adjective2 •In poor condition, especially due to having worn heels; worn-out, shabby.A pair of Oxford-mixture trousers […] fell in a series of not the most graceful folds over a pair of shoes sufficiently down at heel to display a pair of very soiled white stockings. — 1836 •Shabbily dressed, slovenly; impoverished; shabby, dilapidated.He was a queer shoot, again, in his unkempt longish hair and slovenly clothes, a sort of very vulgar down-at-heel American in appearance. — 1916 formsmore down at heel · most down at heel