paddle
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Related to paddles: Paddle tennis
up shit's creek (without a paddle)
rude slang In a challenging or daunting situation. I'm a single mother who just lost her job—I'm really up shit's creek right now. A: "I just found out that the school told my parents that I'm failing French." B: "Oh man, you're up shit's creek without a paddle."
up a/the creek (without a paddle)
slang In a challenging or troublesome situation, especially one that cannot be easily resolved. I have no savings, so if I get fired from my job, I'll be up the creek without a paddle. Shouldn't we stop for gas? We'll be up a creek if the car dies on that desolate road ahead.
up shit creek (without a paddle)
rude slang In a challenging or troublesome situation, especially one that cannot be easily resolved. I have no savings, so if I get fired from my job, I'll be up shit creek without a paddle. Shouldn't we stop for gas? We'll be up shit creek if the car dies on that desolate road ahead.
paddle (one's) own canoe
To act independently. Now that you're 30, people expect you to paddle your own canoe—you can't just live with your parents forever.
be up (a/the) creek (without a paddle)
slang To be in a challenging or troublesome situation, especially one that cannot be easily resolved. I have no savings, so if I get fired from my job, I'll be up the creek without a paddle. Shouldn't we stop for gas? We'll be up a creek if the car dies on that desolate road ahead.
paddle one's own canoe
Fig. to do something by oneself; to be alone. I've been left to paddle my own canoe too many times. Sally isn't with us. She's off paddling her own canoe.
paddle one's own canoe
Be independent and self-reliant, as in It's time Bill learned to paddle his own canoe. This idiom alludes to steering one's own boat. [c. 1800]
up a creek
Also, up shit creek; up the creek (without a paddle). In trouble, in a serious predicament, as in If the check doesn't arrive today I'm up a creek, or The car wouldn't start, so I was up the creek without a paddle. This slangy idiom conjures up the image of a stranded canoeist with no way of moving (paddling) the canoe. President Harry S. Truman used the first term in a letter in 1918. The first variant is considered vulgar.
paddle your own canoe
If you paddle your own canoe, you control what you want to do without anyone's help or interference. With no one managing him, he was basically left to paddle his own canoe. As far as the rest of Europe is concerned we've just got to paddle our own canoe.
be up the creek without a paddle
be in severe difficulty, usually with no means of extricating yourself from it. informalOften shortened to be up the creek , this expression is recorded in the mid 20th century as military slang for ‘lost’ (for example, while on a patrol).
paddle your own canoe
be independent and self-sufficient. informalThis expression has been in figurative use from the early 19th century: it was the title of a popular song by Sarah T. Bolton in 1854 .
up shit creek (without a paddle)
and up the creek (without a paddle) and up a creek mod. in an awkward position with no easy way out. (Usually objectionable.) There I was, at Disney World with only a measly $47.54. I was literally up the creek without a paddle. You are up a creek! You got yourself into it, so get yourself out.