- up the pole
- pregnantWhere the monkey ends up. The phrase puns on the meaning, in trouble, and the vulgar pole, the penis. Also as up the spout, with imagery from a shell rammed in a rifled barrel from which, the copper band having been engaged, it can be extracted only with danger and difficulty; and up the stick, reverting to the simian imagery:'We've planned [marriage] for a long time.''When you discovered she was up the pole.' (Binchy, 1985)The chorus, four times repeated, was 'Sho was up the bleeding spout'. (F. Richards, 1936)I believe Garry Foster's young fella's after puttin' some young one from Coolock up the stick. (R. Doyle, 1987)All these phrases can also be used of financial difficulties.
How not to say what you mean: A dictionary of euphemisms. R. W. Holder. 2014.