(See also POVERTY.)

in the hole In debt; in financial difficulties. The story behind this U.S. slang expression has to do with proprietors in gambling houses taking an amount of money out of the pots as a percentage due the “house.” When money must be paid up, one “goes to the hole” with a check. The “hole” is a slot cut in the middle of the poker table leading to a locked compartment below. All the checks “in the hole” become the property of the keeper of the place. The gamblers’ losses were the keeper’s gain. In the hole has been popular since the 1890s, although put [someone] in the hole ‘to swindle or defraud’ dates from the early 1800s.

in the ketchup Operating at a deficit; in debt; failing to show a profit. Ketchup is a more graphic term than red but the meaning of in the ketchup is synonymous with in the red. The former, a slang expression of U.S. origin, dates from the mid-1900s.

in the red Operating at a deficit; in debt. This 20th-century colloquial Americanism is so called from the bookkeeping practice of entering debits in red ink. The opposite out of the red ‘out of debt’ (or in the black) is also current.

lame duck See INEFFECTUALITY.

lose one’s shirt See FAILURE.

on the rocks Ruined, especially financially; hence, bankrupt, destitute. The concept, but no record of the actual phrase, dates from the days when a merchant’s wealth depended on the safety of ships at sea. Shipwreck—or going on the rocks—meant financial disaster. In Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, Salarino asks Antonio:

over one’s head See PREDICAMENT.

take a bath See FAILURE.

washed out See FAILURE.