undertoad

Etymology

From John Irving's 1978 novel The World According to Garp, in which the title character's son Walt mishears warnings about the undertow at the beach as warnings about an "under toad", causing the title character to subsequently use the phrase "under toad" to refer to the omnipresent threat of disaster that lies beneath the surface of everyday life.

noun

  1. An underlying threat of disaster beneath the surface of everyday life.“Fully two thirds of the earth's surface is covered by water. The other one third is covered by a crack team of investigative reporters led by a crusty old bureau chief. This very fact means that the subject of water is fraught with grave political undertoads.”
  2. A mythical monster that lurks underwater to catch unwary swimmers; a personification of an undertow.“It was that undertoad what took old Bill's boy clean under the water and never brung him back up,” reminisced Will.”