Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) a vagrant, a tramp.

1909		R. Service ‘The Prospector’ in Ballads of a Cheechako 82: Poor boys, they’re down-and-outers.
1917		‘A-No. 1’ From Coast to Coast with Jack London 28: We are down-and-outers hunting for employment, sir!
1923		‘Sapper’ Jim Maitland (1953) 8: I watched him with the pitiful interest a sound man always feels for the down-and-outer.
1931		Ade Old-Time Saloon 111: [He] kept a Clark Street place that ran from street-front to alley and swarmed with the down-and-outers.
1936		N. Gale ‘Down and Up’ in Close of Play 16: If I was you an’ you was me, / I’d grin, an’ rummidge in my fob / Or trousis pocket for a bob, / An’ frank a down-an’-outer through / The turnstile, Guvnor, same as you, / To blow a cloud an’ take a squint / At Robins on the sprint.
1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 14: He picks up some down-and-outer or some new kid from the amateurs.
1959		D. Niland Big Smoke 219: He’d done it himself with the down-and-outers when he was flush.
1965		S.E. Wallace Skid Row 13: Skid row is [...] that collection of saloons, pawn shops, cheap restaurants, [...] flop houses and dilapidated hotels which caters specifically to the needs of the down-and-outer.
1970		G.V. Higgins ‘Dillon Explained That He Was Frightened’ in N. Amer. Rev. Fall 43/1: That kid may be a down-and-outer there, but he has pretty good moves.
1981		McKee & Chisenhall Beale Black & Blue 9: [T]he park [...] was used mainly by down-and-outers.
1986		R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 18: Dero: A derelict or down-and-outer who is also probably on the ‘turps’ or ‘meths.’.
2003		Salon.com 2 Apr. 🌐 ‘The Good Thief’ isn’t about a down-and-outer’s last desperate stab at a big score.
2006		at calendar.walkerart.org 18 July 🌐 Affluent director John Sullivan (Joel McCrea) decides to hit the road as an undercover down-and-outer to research the tough lives faced by those affected by the Depression for his next film.

2. anyone who is suffering, irrespective of income.

1908

S. Ford Side-stepping with Shorty 9: I no sooner take hold of one down and outer, sweat the high livin’ out of him, and fix him up [...] than he passes the word along to another.