with a barge pole
- idiom
- UK
:
ni con un palo
- I wouldn't touch that proposal with a barge pole!
Examples
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She said she wouldn't go out with him with a barge pole.
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Most investors won't invest in the company with a barge pole now.
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I wouldn't touch that house with a barge pole after hearing its history.
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She won't go near him with a barge pole.
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I wouldn't touch that house with a barge pole after hearing its history.
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Most investors won't invest in the company with a barge pole now.
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She won't go near him with a barge pole.
Antonyms
How Willing
Surface Forms
Morphology
The literal words (barge + pole) evoke a long implement that would keep something at a distance, so the core idea of refusing/avoiding is inferable from the image; however, the phrasing is an emphatic, culture-specific idiom and the exact pragmatic force ('absolutely would not engage') is not fully predictable from the constituents alone. For a B1 learner who knows the constituent words, the metaphorical exaggeration may hint at avoidance but still requires prior exposure to grasp the fixed idiomatic usage and force.
Etymology
With a barge pole may come from the long barge pole used to move flat boats along a river, a tool that keeps things at a distance. So if you say you would not touch something 'with a barge pole', you mean you would 'avoid completely' or 'not go near' it.