- Meaning
- This idiom describes being in trouble, a mess, or a difficult situation, often due to one’s own actions or unforeseen complications, as if submerged in a messy, unappealing soup. It conveys a state of predicament or disarray, used in personal, professional, or social contexts to highlight chaos or misfortune, carrying a tone of mild humor, sympathy, or exasperation. The phrase reflects cultural associations of soup with disorder or sustenance gone wrong, capturing the human experience of entanglement in sticky situations. It often implies that the trouble is manageable but requires effort to resolve, resonating in informal settings where lighthearted expressions soften the sting of adversity.
- Origin
- The phrase likely emerged in late 19th-century America, tied to slang for messy or problematic situations, possibly inspired by soup’s association with poverty or sloppy meals in tenements. An early use appears in an 1889 *New York Herald* article, describing someone ‘in the soup’ for a financial blunder. The idiom gained traction during the 1890s, reflecting urban and working-class vernacular, as seen in O. Henry’s short stories, which often depicted characters in predicaments. Its use grew in 20th-century American English, particularly during the Great Depression, when ‘soup’ evoked breadlines and hardship, and was popularized through vaudeville, radio, and early films like the Marx Brothers’ comedies. The phrase’s adoption in British English came later, via American media, and its quirky imagery, blending culinary mishap with trouble, ensured its enduring use across English-speaking cultures, especially in casual or humorous contexts.
- Variants
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- In the soup
- Get in the soup
- Land in the soup
- Deep in the soup
- Examples
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- He’s in the soup after forgetting to submit the client’s proposal on time.
- Get in the soup if you miss another deadline—it’s serious now.
- She landed in the soup by mixing up the event dates for the conference.
- Deep in the soup, they scrambled to fix the broken equipment before the show.
- In the soup, he had to explain why the budget was overspent.
- They got in the soup by promising delivery dates they couldn’t meet.
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