Up the duff
Suggest a CorrectionMeaning
Pregnant. This British and Australian slang expression is informal and can sound coarse, dismissive, or offensive depending on the speaker and context.
Origin
The expression is originally Australian in the available record and appears in Sydney J. Baker's Dictionary of Australian Slang in 1941. Its deeper origin is uncertain. The Oxford English Dictionary cautiously suggests a connection with duff, a boiled flour pudding, by analogy with pregnancy euphemisms such as in the pudding club or bun in the oven. That explanation is plausible wordplay, not a proved chain of derivation, and more elaborate sexual explanations should not be stated as fact.
Research Sources
Usage Examples
- The character announces that she is up the duff, using slang typical of the period.
- He described his partner as up the duff, a phrase she found far too crude for the occasion.
- In informal British dialogue, up the duff may be natural, but pregnant is safer in neutral writing.