Queer street
Suggest a CorrectionMeaning
A difficult or precarious situation, especially financial trouble. The expression is dated and may be misunderstood because queer now has prominent identity-related meanings.
Origin
Queer Street was an imaginary location in early nineteenth-century British cant. The 1811 Lexicon Balatronicum defined it broadly as something wrong, improper, or contrary to one's wishes; the phrase later became especially associated with debt and financial embarrassment. Its precise coinage is unknown. It cannot derive from London's Carey Street bankruptcy court, because the phrase predates the court's move there in the 1840s, and it is unrelated to the later sexuality sense of queer.
Research Sources
Variants
- In Queer Street
- Down Queer Street
Usage Examples
- One more missed payment will put the company in Queer Street.
- The detective novel places its gambler deep in Queer Street and desperate for cash.
- Because the phrase is dated, modern financial writing usually says in serious difficulty rather than in Queer Street.