downtroddenadj.n.

1597 Bp. J. King Lect. Ionas xxvii. 368 Yet he encourageth that persecuted and downe-trodden soule.

a1616 W. Shakespeare King John (1623) ii. i. 241 This downe-troden equity. View more context for this quotation

1641 J. Milton Of Reformation 90 The most dejected..and downe-trodden Vassals of Perdition.

1795 J. Reeves Thoughts Eng. Govt. I. 19 What a degenerate down-trodden race must they be, who have not discovered this imposition; or, discovering it, have not resisted it!

1858 J. Martineau Stud. Christianity 342 The downtrodden serfs of Franconia.

1862 Illustr. Melbourne Post 26 July Many generations of starved, bekicked, and downtrodden forefathers.

1900 Amer. Catholic Q. Rev. Jan. 104 He is poor, downtrodden and sunken.

1961 K. A. Porter Let. 20 Jan. (1990) x. 585 As a sop to the downtrodden colored minority, poor old Marian Anderson sang the ‘Star Spangled Banner’.

1992 Independent 24 Feb. 6/7 [He] chose one of the most downtrodden parts of the country to open the first NHS laughter clinic.

2005 Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) 4 Feb. 3/4 Cosatu's two expulsions have been a public relations coup for Zimbabwe's downtrodden masses.

1800 S. T. Coleridge tr. F. Schiller Piccolomini i. iv. 23 Dreary and solitary as a church-yard The meadow and down-trodden seed-plot lie.

1846 H. Rogers in Edinb. Rev. July 12/1 A broken twig, or the down-trodden grass, or the ashes of a long-extinguished watch-fire.

1906 Westm. Gaz. 29 Dec. 16/1 The downtrodden slippers tied on with string, toes out, and hardly any sole.

1997 R. Pearson Beyond Recognition xxxi. 304 Boldt walked among the fallen limbs and the wintering weeds and shrubs, avoiding the downtrodden path created hours earlier by a dozen anxious firemen and patrol officers.

1834 N.-Y. Evangelist 11 Oct. 164/3 To implore his blessing upon the down-trodden and the poor.

1882 Cent. Mag. May 149/2 It is never safe to accept the account given of the downtrodden by those who oppress them.

1952 Contemp. Rev. Jan. 62 His heart was filled with..pity for the downtrodden.

1997 Irish Times 19 Mar. 13/2 (heading) Bishop's invisible diocese of the poor, the persecuted and the downtrodden.

2013 Economist 23 Nov. 91/2 Those struggles humanised him—deepening..his renowned empathy with the downtrodden.

1868 Tomahawk 11 Apr. 143/1 The cause of ‘the unsatisfactory condition’ was said to be, inter alia, ‘low wages’, ‘depression’, ‘down-troddenness’ [etc.].

1935 Chicago Defender 16 Nov. 16/5 It has to do with our downtrodden-ness more than anything else.

2014 Free Press (Kinston, N. Carolina) (Nexis) 18 Dec. Peddling downtroddenness is nothing new in the world of songwriting.