Word.ws English Dictionary

up to the hub

up to the hub prepositional phrase: as far as possible in embarrassment or difficulty, or in business; deeply involved.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (archaic, idiomatic) As far as possible in embarrassment or difficulty, or in business; deeply involved.
    • I am afraid A. F. S. (Dresden) gets "up to the hub" in engineering difficulties sometimes, but this will help him to appreciate the force, beauty and application of the expression.Amateur work, illustrated (volume 4, page 406)
    • I was up to the hub in love, and was goin' into it like a locomotive.1864, The Gleaner, page 13

Origin of up to the hub

Suggesting a wheel stuck in mud.

Questions about up to the hub

What does up to the hub mean?
Up to the hub means as far as possible in embarrassment or difficulty, or in business; deeply involved.
What part of speech is up to the hub?
Up to the hub is a prepositional phrase.

Words near up to the hub in the dictionary

  1. up to speed
  2. up to standard
  3. up to the chin
  4. up to the elbows
  5. up to the hammer
  6. up to the hub
  7. up to the knocker
  8. up to the mark
  9. up to the nines
  10. up to the tonsils
  11. up to time

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: up to the hub (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:

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