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Meaning of up the spout in English:

up the spout

See synonyms for up the spout

Translate up the spout into Spanish

phrase

informal British

  • 1No longer working or likely to be useful or successful.

    • ‘his petrol gauge is up the spout’
    • ‘Now, with the roads clogged, the trains up the spout and hot desking presenting a daily strain of competing for your actual workstation, the thought of staying at home to work has never been more appealing.’
    • ‘Of course, the alternative is that the authorities turn a blind eye to drug use in brothels, and then your whole criminal justice system goes up the spout.’
    • ‘By the time you have eventually caught one, appointments in town have been missed and one's careful planning for the day has gone up the spout.’
    • ‘The internet access at work was up the spout almost all day.’
    • ‘Plan A went up the spout in eight minutes with Jason Price's seventh goal in six games since joining from Brentford, who thought he was a defender.’
    • ‘Some of them are half way through their course and their qualifications will go up the spout.’
    • ‘Indeed, right now, there are tens of thousands of people unable to indulge in a little online flirting - and all because MSN's service is up the spout.’
    • ‘The publisher's ability to fill those orders is up the spout - they're having to ship directly from printer to bookshop.’
    faulty, damaged, broken, defective, unsound
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  • 2(of a woman) pregnant.

    • ‘‘I'm up the spout so you'd better hike child benefit,’ were not the words used, which is a pity as it would have livened things up a little.’
    • ‘I hear Daly is now up the spout through her unholy union with Kaye.’
    • ‘Turn again to this lot, and their sympathetic reaction to some self-proclaimed religious freak who has been put up the spout out of wedlock.’
    pregnant, expecting a baby, having a baby, with a baby on the way, having a child, expectant, carrying a child
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  • 3(of a bullet or cartridge) in the barrel of a gun and ready to be fired.

    • ‘Fully loaded with its seven-round magazine, plus one up the spout, the P - 32 weighs a feathery 9.4 ounces, yet packs respectable firepower that can be unleashed with a pull of its DAO trigger.’
    • ‘There's a full mag and empty chamber, and I recommend one up the spout until we cross the river.’
    • ‘Any time an armed officer perceived sufficient danger to draw the gun, he or she would chamber a round if there wasn't one up the spout already.’
    • ‘And keep the safety catch off and a round up the spout.’