Word.ws English Dictionary

up a creek

up a creek is the alternative form of up the creek.

Meaning of up the creek

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) In trouble; in a difficult situation.
    • We'll be up the creek if we lose those files, so we should back them up regularly.
    Synonyms:
    up shit creek

Questions about up a creek

What is up a creek the alternative form of?
Up a creek is the alternative form of up the creek.

Words near up a creek in the dictionary

  1. Uotsuri
  2. Uotsuri Island
  3. Uotsuri-shima
  4. up
  5. up a close
  6. up a creek
  7. up a creek without a paddle
  8. up a gum tree
  9. up a height
  10. up a storm
  11. up a stump

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: up a creek (page history and authors); up the creek (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.

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Cite this entry: “up a creek.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/up_a_creek. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.