estar com a corda no pescoço

Literally: To be with the rope around the neck

Example: “Com três prestações atrasadas, estamos com a corda no pescoço.” — With three payments overdue, we're up the creek without a paddle.

English equivalent: Up the creek without a paddle

Origin: Comes directly from public execution by hanging, where the condemned stood with the rope already fitted around their neck in the final moments before the sentence was carried out — the single most literal, immediate image of imminent, inescapable doom available. The phrase's figurative use draws specifically on the dramatic tension of a last-minute reprieve or pardon arriving right at that exact moment, when the noose was already in place and the executioner's hand was the only thing left standing between the condemned and death. Applied today to financial desperation, workplace pressure, or any other urgent crisis, the phrase keeps that same sense of a threat that has moved past merely looming and is now, quite literally, already touching the person it threatens.