reach-me-down

[ reech-mee-doun ]

noun

, British.

1. hand-me-down.

reach-me-down

noun

1. 1. often plural a garment that is cheaply ready-made or second-hand
   2. ( as modifier )

      reach-me-down finery

2. plural trousers
3. modifier not original; derivative; stale

   a stock of reach-me-down ideas

Word History and Origins

Origin of reach-me-down¹

First recorded in 1860–65

Example Sentences

All this might have created a reach-me-down revolutionary.

From The Guardian

As he did so the eternal feminine rejoiced at his tall, straight, cleanly handsomeness, in spite of the reach-me-down which clothed it.

From Project Gutenberg

She would know what life meant to that skimpy woman in the green plaid, would inspect that new specimen, the jaunty boy who made his good clothes look like an ordinary "reach-me-down."

From Project Gutenberg

There might have been a far-away reminiscence of Perthshire moors clinging to them, or earlier memories of a famous creator in Bond Street; but suggestion of the reach-me-down shops from which New York clerks clothe themselves there was none.

From Project Gutenberg

Yet sentence after sentence in the dialogue is so well-worn that it's threadbare: a patchwork of salt-of-the-earth, reach-me-down cockney phrases.

From The Guardian