on one's uppers
English
Etymology
From uppers (“the top part of a leather shoe”), having worn through the sole.
Prepositional phrase
- destitute; poor.
- 1902, Guy Wetmore Carryl, How a Cat Was Annoyed and a Poet Was Booted
- “We are bound toward the scuppers,
- And the time has come to act,
- Or we’ll both be on our uppers
- For a fact!”
- Synonym: down on one's uppers
- 1902, Guy Wetmore Carryl, How a Cat Was Annoyed and a Poet Was Booted