up the duff
English edit
Etymology edit
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.) Unknown; the OED states that the phrase was originally Australian. Possibly related to in the pudding club (duff is a type of pudding) and thus related to dough.
Pronunciation edit
Audio (AU) (file)
Prepositional phrase edit
- (UK, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, colloquial, slang) Pregnant.
- 1994, The Daily Telegraph, quoted in 2005, Judith Siefring (editor), The Oxford Dictionary of Idioms, 2nd Edition, paperback, page 88,
- At 19, he was married (‘only because she was up the duff’ he explains gallantly).
- 1998, Tracey Ullman, Tracey Takes On..., page 98:
- “Well, when he found out that my gran was up the duff, he went back to his native Norway (or it might have been Sweden) […] .”
- 1999, Irvine Welsh, Filth, page 191:
- It just means that some daft wee hairy that gets knocked up the duff has tae get oan the bus tae Carlisle tae get cleaned oot.
- 2008, Sam de Brito, The Lost Boys, page 14:
- The great coalface of fuckwits; the fly-by-nighters, who do their five years in Bondi, befriend a Roosters player, get a good coke dealer, meet some tight westie bitch who′s moved here while she works a job in PR, they fall in love, she gets up the duff and then they have to buy a house in Condell Park and they′re gone […] .
- 1994, The Daily Telegraph, quoted in 2005, Judith Siefring (editor), The Oxford Dictionary of Idioms, 2nd Edition, paperback, page 88,
Usage notes edit
- Possibly offensive to pregnant women. Usage may imply that the pregnancy is unplanned and/or unwanted.