devil to pay, the

Serious trouble, a mess. The expression originally referred to making a bargain with the devil, and the payment that eventually would be exacted. It first appeared in print about 1400: “Be it wer be at tome for ay, than her to serve the devil to pay” (Reliquiare Antiquae). This Faustian type of trouble was later lightened to mean any kind of problem (Jonathan Swift, Journal to Stella, 1711: “The Earl of Strafford is to go soon to Holland . . . and then there will be the devil and all to pay”). In the nine- teenth century the expression was expanded to “the devil to pay and no pitch hot.” This form referred to “paying,” or caulking, a seam around a ship’s hull very near the waterline; it was called “the devil” because it was so difficult to reach. (See also BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA.) Sir Walter Scott used it in The Pirate (1821): “If they hurt but one hair of Cleve- land’s head, there will be the devil to pay and no pitch hot.”