in the cactus

in the cactus

A difficult situation, often one that is uncomfortable and/or unsettling. Primarily heard in Australia. Oh boy, he's in the cactus now that his girlfriend has seen him kissing another girl!
See also: cactus
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • cactus
  • cactus buttons
  • out of (one's) element
  • out of element
  • out of one's element
  • out of your element
  • cactus juice
  • be out of (one's) element
  • take (one's) courage in both hands
References in periodicals archive
"They'll try to remove it with their mouth, which then leads to more panic and pretty soon they'll be spun up in the cactus and bleeding and scared.
Performances take place in the Cactus Shadows Theater, 33606 N.
Jojo's Jolly Tea Party will take place in the Cactus Shadows Theater on one day, Sunday, May 19 at 2 p.m.
Intercropping IPA-Sertania cactus with leucaena or gliricidia, or cultivating it alone, does not influence DMP, but influences the composition of macronutrients in the cactus, with the best results obtained for cactus cultivated alone and with gliricidia.
Habitat fragmentation in coastal southern California disrupts genetic connectivity in the cactus wren (Campvlorhynchus brunneicapillus).
However for any vertex u of color j + 1 in the cactus tree, the rightmost polygon connecting it to a vertex w of color j is obviously the last one to be recovered.
The cactus borer beetle kills the plant by laying its larvae in the cactus' stem; the larvae eat their way out and hatch into adults.
In the cactus group, blood glucose and insulin levels decreased, and in the water group, the levels did not change.