Word.ws English Dictionary

up the pole

up the pole prepositional phrase: in favour or good repute; strait-laced; teetotal.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (obsolete, slang) In favour or good repute; strait-laced; teetotal.
  2. (informal) In confusion; mistaken.
  3. (informal) In trouble or difficulty.
    • An' all them joys o' life I 'eld so sweet / Is up the pole.1915, C.J. Dennis, The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, published 1916, page 13
    • I think we may take it for granted that our friend Weldon is a bit up the pole financially.1932, Dorothy L. Sayers, Have His Carcase
  4. (archaic, slang) Drunk.
  5. (slang) Crazy; at one's wits' end.
  6. (Ireland, informal) Pregnant.
    • You know that red Carlisle girl, Lily? […] Is she up the pole? —Better ask Seymour that.1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 1: Telemachus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part I [Telemachia], page 22

Forms of up the pole

alternative formup a pole

Questions about up the pole

What does up the pole mean?
Up the pole means in favour or good repute; strait-laced; teetotal.
What part of speech is up the pole?
Up the pole is a prepositional phrase.

Words near up the pole in the dictionary

  1. up the flume
  2. up the game
  3. up the gut
  4. up the kyte
  5. up the Oxo Tower
  6. up the pole
  7. up the proverbial
  8. up the river
  9. up the spout
  10. up the stick
  11. up the stump

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: up the pole (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-up the pole.ogg.

Cite this entry: “up the pole.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/up_the_pole. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.