skid-row bum

skid-row bum

A person reduced to abject poverty and squalid living conditions, especially an alcoholic or drug addict. He used to run one of the most successful companies in the city, but then the market crashed and he wound up as a skid-row bum. I have to walk by a couple skid-row bums on my way to work who always beg for my spare change.
See also: bum
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

skid row bum

n. a down-and-out person; a low alcoholic beggar. Do you want to end up a skid row bum?
See also: bum, row, skid
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • skid row bum
  • skid row
  • (the) fact is
  • on skid row
  • skid row, on
  • (the) same again
  • buy a round
  • buy a/the round (of drinks)
  • druggie
  • druggy
References in periodicals archive
2 "SKID ROW (DOWNTOWN)" IN LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (FRANK OZ, 1986) In the deliriously campy '80s movie, this song is performed by a minor ensemble playing skid-row bums and soul-singing bag ladies; their group choreography climaxes with an aerial crane shot that tracks up as the singers raise their faces toward the sky, until they drop their heads in unison on the last beat of the song.
Cally Spooner