Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- phrase Used other than as an idiom: see
under ,pump . - phrase Australia Under
pressure to perform.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Unclear. As an idiom, identified only in Australian English. Possibly a reference to a punishment, sometimes meted out by angry mobs, of restraining a person beneath a pump and pumping water over them. By extension, a person under the pump would be acting under threat of dire punishment.
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Examples
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