armpit, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

armpit n.

[the link of the SE armpit with dirt and smell]

1. (orig. US) the least appetizing, poorest, most run-down and poss. dangerous (area of a) city or town; often as armpit of the nation/universe; also in phr. rough as a docker’s armpit.

1949		Triad (Acacia Fraternity, U. Michigan) 44:1 11/1: Los Angles, affectionately known as the ‘armpit of the nation’.
1957		D. Erskine Pink Hotel 11: [S]he called it [i.e. a town] the goddamned armpit of Creation.
1964		K. Shapiro in Hartford Courant (CT) Magazine 5 July 14/4: Rome, the armpit of the universe.
1969		in Current Sl. IV:3–4 (1970) 12: Armpit of the nation, n. Las Cruces (New Mexico).
1973		N.Y. Times 19 Aug. 15: She is an amateur [...] with no real notion of who might be out there in the armpit of America.
1978		Tracks (Aus.) Dec. 3: If some smart-arse asks you what it’s like to live in the arsehole of the country, ask them how the armpit is going [Moore 1993].
1982		P. Theroux London Embassy 40: It was a John Baldwick, living in some armpit in east London.
1987		(con. 1968) Bunch & Cole Reckoning for Kings (1989) 319: What a fucking armpit this is.
2004		(con. 1990s) N. ‘Razor’ Smith A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 359: Stockwell Park Estate looked as rough as a docker’s armpit.
2017		T. Pluck Bad Boy Boogie [ebook] Mama Angeline called this place [i.e. New Jersey] the armpit of the nation.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 68: [A] pauper’s grave in some grim armpit of Stepney.

2. used similarly of a place, e.g. a nightclub or café.

1962		F. Norman Guntz 86: She’s a stripper in this way out filthy little armpit of a night club.
1996		(con. 1964-65) B. Thorpe Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 15: This was a hot club, not some armpit.
2005		K. Huff A Steady Rain I i: I don’t want you going back to that armpit of a bachelor pad and sticking it to a bottle of Schnapps tonight.

3. (US campus) an unpleasant individual.

1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 72: Armpit An obnoxious person.
1976		in Woodward & Bernstein The Final Days 231: ‘The armpit of humanity,’ he called Nixon.

In phrases

put someone up to their armpits (v.)

(UK Und.) to cheat an accomplice out of his share of the proceeds.

1839

H. Brandon Dict. of the Flash or Cant Lang. 167/2: To put a fellow up to his arm-pits – to cheat a companion out of his share of the plunder.

SE in slang uses

In phrases

up to one’s armpits (also up to one’s diddies, ...one’s nipples, ...one’s tits, over one’s tits) [var. on up to the elbows under elbow n.¹]

(orig. US) consumed by, overwhelmed by.

1904		N.Z. Parliamentary Debates 925: I hope my friend, when he is up to his armpits in mud, will remember that the vestibule is a work of art.
1933		Hecht & Fowler Great Magoo 127: sam: Dough? weber: Up to his nipples.
1973		Newsweek LXXXI 333: A paunchy local Leo, round face glistening with sweat, had been up to his armpits in the free lunch.
1980		E. Lustbader Ninja 158: Christ, she was up to her armpits in shit.
1986		S. King It (1987) 37: He was up to his tits in bills and there was no way he could see out of the red ink.
1992		F. Weldon Growing Rich 215: See how Angela’s sandwich business went if she was up to her armpits in kids.
1993		(con. 1945) S. McAughtry Touch and Go 82: Annie is up to her diddies in debt.
1999		P. Temple Black Tide (2012) [ebook] Bitch wanted Frank done. In it over her tits.
2002		Herald (Scotland) 27 Jul. 🌐 [He] will reveal evidence that shows Baird, originally from Helensburgh, was ‘up to his armpits’ in top secret work for the government during the war years.

work under the armpits (v.) [SE work/work v. (4); ? above the armpits is the neck from which one can be hanged, so below this fig. line one is ‘safe’]

(UK Und.) to confine one’s criminality to such activities that would be classed as petty larceny, bringing a maximum sentence of seven years transportation, rather than hanging; thus work above the armpits v., to commit crimes that could lead to one’s execution.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 225: arm-pits: To work under the arm-pits, is to practise only such kinds of depredation, as will amount, upon conviction, to what the law terms single, or petty larceny; the extent of punishment for which is transportation for seven years. By following this system, a thief avoids the halter, which certainly is applied above the arm-pits.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1835		Metropolitan Mag. 14 330: He’s a poor crawling wretch, who works under the armpits, to be banded, and hour’d up in a swimmer all his best days, and then to be tatted.