Word.ws English Dictionary

under the pump

under the pump prepositional phrase: under pressure to perform, e.g. at work or in a sports contest.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (Australia, New Zealand) Under pressure to perform, e.g. at work or in a sports contest.
    • I think all the Australian batsmen who came back from South Africa felt a bit under the pump. We simply had to perform or not stay in the side.c. 1970s, Doug Walters, quoted in 2008, Ashley Mallett, One of a Kind: The Doug Walters Story, 2010, ReadHowYouWant, page 219
    • Nick was under the pump. He was underdone, and the selectors wanted to replace him with James Stewart.2003, Harry Gordon, The Time of Our Lives: Inside the Sydney Olympics, page 13
    Synonyms:
    under the gun
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see under, pump.
    • The laws of the state relative to the intermarriage of the whites with the coloured population, are also referred to. A case of this kind took place at New York when I was there; and as soon as the ceremony was over, the husband, I believe it was, but either the husband or the wife, was seized by...1839, “Captain Marryat”, in A Diary in America, with Remarks on its Institutions, page 159
    • Now the punishment for playing truant was to have the truant′s head put under the pump, and pumped upon.1863, “Mrs. Lovechild”, The Truant, in The Christmas Tree and Other Stories for the Young, page 48

Synonyms of under the pump

Origin of under the pump

Unclear. As an idiom, identified only in Australian and New Zealand English. * Originally a sailing term for when the ship is taking in water and the ship is literally being bailed out to stay afloat. In the days of yore, the crew had to work 24 hours a day pumping out the ship until the ship reaches safe harbour for repairs. * Also possibly as a punishment. * Also suggested has been an origin in the construction industry: Workers can be quite literally under the pump if a concrete pour is occurring and the steel reinforcing and form-work is still being finished. The concrete pump would be reaching out above the workers, who would be completing their duties at a frantic pace. Once the concrete has been delivered, the ‘pour′ must occur as soon as possible, or it may begin to set. Hence, being under the pump describes the situation of working at feverish pace to meet a specific deadline.

Questions about under the pump

What does under the pump mean?
Under the pump means under pressure to perform, e.g. at work or in a sports contest.
What part of speech is under the pump?
Under the pump is a prepositional phrase.

Words near under the pump in the dictionary

  1. under the loupe
  2. under the magnifying glass
  3. under the mahogany
  4. under the microscope
  5. under the plough
  6. under the pump
  7. under the radar
  8. under the rose
  9. under the rug
  10. under the rule
  11. under the saya

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: under the pump (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-under the pump.ogg.

Cite this entry: “under the pump.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/under_the_pump. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.