down in the dumps

down in the dumps

Meaning

• a gloomy
• unhappy
• sad
• in low spirits
• in melancholy mood
• in depressed state of mind
• lacking engagement or enthusiasm.

Example Sentences

1. As the things were not going well for her at work, she was feeling a bit down in the dumps.
2. Little Jon is down in the dumps because all her friends are gone away with their parents.
3. She's a bit down in the dumps because she's got to take her exams again.
4. Carl now always remains down in the dumps because of the diabetes.
5. My cat got fever today and she is not playing but feeling down in the dumps.
6. After losing the general election of president, Jack really felt down in the dumps.
7. When her husband left for America she was too down in the dumps.

Origin

To be ‘in the dumps' was to be disconsolate and disheartened – what Sir Winston Churchill was later to call ‘black dog'. The first record we have of ‘down in the dumps' is in Francis Grose's priceless vocabulary The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785: Dumps. Down in the dumps; low-spirited, melancholy: jocularly said to be derived from Dumpos, a king of Egypt, who died of melancholy.

Usage

This idiom is used to express the “sad feeling” and generally comes with the word “feel” for example: He felt down in the dumps.