See up the pole in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "up a pole",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "prep_phrase",
"senses": [
{
"attestations": [
{
"date": "19th c.",
"references": []
}
],
"categories": [],
"glosses": [
"In favour or good repute; strait-laced; teetotal."
],
"id": "en-up_the_pole-en-prep_phrase-Uo5Rb08B",
"links": [
[
"military",
"military"
],
[
"teetotal",
"teetotal"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(military slang, obsolete) In favour or good repute; strait-laced; teetotal."
],
"tags": [
"obsolete",
"slang"
],
"topics": [
"government",
"military",
"politics",
"war"
]
},
{
"attestations": [
{
"date": "from 19th c.",
"references": []
}
],
"categories": [],
"glosses": [
"In confusion; mistaken."
],
"id": "en-up_the_pole-en-prep_phrase-7Zs9ogM2",
"links": [
[
"mistaken",
"mistaken"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(informal) In confusion; mistaken."
],
"tags": [
"informal"
]
},
{
"attestations": [
{
"date": "from 19th c.",
"references": []
}
],
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
47,
58
]
],
"ref": "1915, C.J. Dennis, The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, published 1916, page 13:",
"text": "An' all them joys o' life I 'eld so sweet / Is up the pole.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
67,
78
]
],
"ref": "1932, Dorothy L. Sayers, Have His Carcase:",
"text": "I think we may take it for granted that our friend Weldon is a bit up the pole financially.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"In trouble or difficulty."
],
"id": "en-up_the_pole-en-prep_phrase-d3RRRHha",
"raw_glosses": [
"(informal) In trouble or difficulty."
],
"tags": [
"informal"
]
},
{
"attestations": [
{
"date": "from 19th c.",
"references": []
}
],
"categories": [],
"glosses": [
"Drunk."
],
"id": "en-up_the_pole-en-prep_phrase-z6fuMRDZ",
"links": [
[
"Drunk",
"drunk"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(slang, archaic) Drunk."
],
"tags": [
"archaic",
"slang"
]
},
{
"attestations": [
{
"date": "from 20th c.",
"references": []
}
],
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "29 3 2 0 37 29",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "30 2 1 0 41 26",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "29 2 1 0 43 26",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Crazy; at one's wits' end."
],
"id": "en-up_the_pole-en-prep_phrase-39zSTp1T",
"links": [
[
"Crazy",
"crazy"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(slang) Crazy; at one's wits' end."
],
"tags": [
"slang"
]
},
{
"attestations": [
{
"date": "from 20th c.",
"references": []
}
],
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Irish English",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
50,
61
]
],
"ref": "1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 1: Telemachus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part I [Telemachia], page 22:",
"text": "You know that red Carlisle girl, Lily? […] Is she up the pole? —Better ask Seymour that.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Pregnant."
],
"id": "en-up_the_pole-en-prep_phrase-UVuVRdNC",
"links": [
[
"Pregnant",
"pregnant"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(Ireland, informal) Pregnant."
],
"tags": [
"Ireland",
"informal"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-up the pole.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/3/3e/En-au-up_the_pole.ogg/En-au-up_the_pole.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/En-au-up_the_pole.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
]
}
],
"word": "up the pole"
}
{
"categories": [
"English contranyms",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English prepositional phrases",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries"
],
"forms": [
{
"form": "up a pole",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "prep_phrase",
"senses": [
{
"attestations": [
{
"date": "19th c.",
"references": []
}
],
"categories": [
"English military slang",
"English terms with obsolete senses"
],
"glosses": [
"In favour or good repute; strait-laced; teetotal."
],
"links": [
[
"military",
"military"
],
[
"teetotal",
"teetotal"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(military slang, obsolete) In favour or good repute; strait-laced; teetotal."
],
"tags": [
"obsolete",
"slang"
],
"topics": [
"government",
"military",
"politics",
"war"
]
},
{
"attestations": [
{
"date": "from 19th c.",
"references": []
}
],
"categories": [
"English informal terms"
],
"glosses": [
"In confusion; mistaken."
],
"links": [
[
"mistaken",
"mistaken"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(informal) In confusion; mistaken."
],
"tags": [
"informal"
]
},
{
"attestations": [
{
"date": "from 19th c.",
"references": []
}
],
"categories": [
"English informal terms",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
47,
58
]
],
"ref": "1915, C.J. Dennis, The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, published 1916, page 13:",
"text": "An' all them joys o' life I 'eld so sweet / Is up the pole.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
67,
78
]
],
"ref": "1932, Dorothy L. Sayers, Have His Carcase:",
"text": "I think we may take it for granted that our friend Weldon is a bit up the pole financially.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"In trouble or difficulty."
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(informal) In trouble or difficulty."
],
"tags": [
"informal"
]
},
{
"attestations": [
{
"date": "from 19th c.",
"references": []
}
],
"categories": [
"English slang",
"English terms with archaic senses"
],
"glosses": [
"Drunk."
],
"links": [
[
"Drunk",
"drunk"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(slang, archaic) Drunk."
],
"tags": [
"archaic",
"slang"
]
},
{
"attestations": [
{
"date": "from 20th c.",
"references": []
}
],
"categories": [
"English slang"
],
"glosses": [
"Crazy; at one's wits' end."
],
"links": [
[
"Crazy",
"crazy"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(slang) Crazy; at one's wits' end."
],
"tags": [
"slang"
]
},
{
"attestations": [
{
"date": "from 20th c.",
"references": []
}
],
"categories": [
"English informal terms",
"English terms with quotations",
"Irish English"
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
50,
61
]
],
"ref": "1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 1: Telemachus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part I [Telemachia], page 22:",
"text": "You know that red Carlisle girl, Lily? […] Is she up the pole? —Better ask Seymour that.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Pregnant."
],
"links": [
[
"Pregnant",
"pregnant"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(Ireland, informal) Pregnant."
],
"tags": [
"Ireland",
"informal"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-up the pole.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/3/3e/En-au-up_the_pole.ogg/En-au-up_the_pole.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/En-au-up_the_pole.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
]
}
],
"word": "up the pole"
}
Download raw JSONL data for up the pole meaning in English (3.1kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-16 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (d6fca27 and 65e1673). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.