down on one's luck
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Related to down on one's luck: no such luck
down on (one's) luck
Experiencing a period of misfortune. Ryan is really down on his luck these days—he just lost his job, and then he got evicted from his apartment.
down on one's luck
Afflicted by misfortune, as in They've been down on their luck ever since they moved out West. [Colloquial; second half of 1800s]
down on one's luck
Short of cash or credit. A nineteenth-century description of financial embarrassment, usually of a temporary nature, this term implies, with down, that the person so described at one time had more resources. Thus Thackeray wrote, “The Chevalier was. . . . to use his own picturesque expression, ‘down on his luck’” (Pendennis, 1849).