interesting condition

plural interesting conditions

1. archaiceuphemisticPregnancyFirst known use mid-18th c.

   That knee-trembler put Angela in an interesting condition and, of course, there was talk.

   1996, Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes: a memoir, page 15

   4 more examples

   I cannot honestly report that I have ever seen a feline matron of this class washing her face when in an interesting condition.

   1880, Charles Dickens, Great expectations, page 549

   His young wife ... was at church with her mother, and suddenly overcome by indisposition, arising from her interesting condition, she could not remain standing, she drove home in the first sledge, a smart-looking one, she came across.

   1917, Leo Tolstoy, translated by Constance Garnet, Anna Karenina, Part 2, Chapter 5

   ... and replied that he was come there about a lady, now an inmate of Horne's house, that was in an interesting condition, poor body, from woman's woe (and here he fetched a deep sigh) and to know if her happiness had yet taken place.

   1920, James Joyce, Ulysses, page 336

   They borrowed a female [cat] in an interesting condition and set their trap under the cypress tree at the top of the vacant lot.

   1945, John Steinbeck, Cannery Row, page 168

   Synonyms: interesting situation