out-at-elbows

My frayed and out-at-elbows jacket was the badge and advertisement of my class, which was their class.

THE DESCENT 2010

Formerly, in his younger days, he must have mingled in the out-at-elbows society of people living on a humble scale.

Scenes from a Courtesan's Life 2007

Titus Alden, who, in an old, thread-bare and out-at-elbows coat, as well as baggy, worn, jean trousers and rough, shineless, ill-fitting country shoes, desired by his look to know what he wanted.

An American Tragedy 2004

Yet whereas we were out-at-elbows, the carpenters were sleek, respectable, monied, well-clad fellows.

Through Russia 2003

It is the _spectre rouge_, or, to be more accurate as to local colour, the _spectre vert_ of the Irish alarmist, and a poor, ragged, out-at-elbows spectre it is, altogether very much the worse for wear.

Disturbed Ireland Being the Letters Written During the Winter of 1880-81. Bernard H. Becker

She loved the Italian sea and the warm southern sunshine; and the dear old "out-at-elbows" villa on the heights above Sorrento was the nearest thing she had known to a home.

Betty Wales Senior Margaret Warde

I remembered that I was dressed roughly, was torn and rumpled by my contest with the forest, and that I must appear an out-at-elbows

Montlivet Alice Prescott Smith

He turned his hand to every sort of work, he did odd jobs during the day and played his violin for dancing at night, he grew lean and out-at-elbows and graver than he used to be.

The Windy Hill Cornelia Meigs 1928

A shabby, disreputable, out-at-elbows office coat was worn over his ultra-smart street clothes, and he was puffing at a freakish little pipe in the shape of a miniature automobile.

Dawn O'Hara, the Girl Who Laughed Edna Ferber 1926

He turned his hand to every sort of work, he did odd jobs during the day and played his violin for dancing at night, he grew lean and out-at-elbows and graver than he used to be.

The Windy Hill 1922