down in the dumps
/ˌdaʊn ɪn ðə ˈdʌmps/INFORMAL · C2
Meaning
sad and lacking energy for a while
Examples
- 1Ben has been down in the dumps since his football club lost the final.
- 2A long grey winter leaves a lot of people down in the dumps.
- 3She seemed down in the dumps at breakfast, so I made her a cup of tea.
- 4Don’t sit at home down in the dumps all weekend — come to the cinema with us.
- 5Why is everyone so down in the dumps on a Monday morning?
Grammar
Used after be, feel or seem. The phrase itself never changes: keep dumps plural.
Similar in meaning
More idioms about emotions
All 20 idioms and the topic quiz →get cold feetto become too nervous to do something you plannedhit the roofto suddenly become extremely angryhave butterflies in your stomachto feel very nervous before something importanton cloud nineextremely happy and excitedkeep your coolto stay calm in a difficult momentdrive someone up the wallto make someone very annoyed or angry
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