up the duff

English

Etymology

(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

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Prepositional phrase

up the duff

1. (UK, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, colloquial, slang) Pregnant.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:pregnant

   • 1987, David Leland, Wish You Were Here, spoken by Lynda Mansell (Emily Lloyd):

     Lynda up the duff—what odds do you put on that, eh, Mr Clever Dick, eh? That's shut his gob. That's put a crease in his brand-new suit.

   • 1994, The Daily Telegraph, quoted in The Oxford Dictionary of Idioms, page 88, 2nd edition, 2005:

     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 […] .

Usage notes

• Possibly offensive to pregnant women. Usage may imply that the pregnancy is unplanned and/or unwanted.