彼は、うだつが上がらないようだ。

English Translation

It seems as he is not going to get ahead.

FYI: We say うだつ上がらない (not get ahead), but we don’t say うだつが上がる (get ahead). We also don’t say うだつ上げない as a transitive verb. I don’t know why, but it’s just as it is.

This is a common idiom derived from an architecture jargon. うだつ is a sort of decoration put on traditional Japanese roofs of rich people’s houses. You can see the illustration of うだつ here.

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