If you call a person or a company washed-up, you are saying their good days are over and they are not coming back — they had success once, and now no one wants them. It is used most about people whose work depends on being popular: singers, actors, athletes, politicians. The picture behind it is rubbish that the sea throws onto the beach: no longer moving, no longer any use to anyone. That makes it a genuinely unkind word, much harder than "he is not doing so well", so be careful who you say it about — people say it about strangers and celebrities far more often than to someone's face. It is informal, common in American English, and often strengthened: "all washed-up", "a washed-up old boxer". Note that it usually carries a hint of self-inflicted decline, of a career wasted rather than simply ended. Written with a hyphen before a noun ("a washed-up actor") and often without after "be" ("he's washed up").