up in arms
idiom

- extremely upset; very angry, indignant

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language

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WORD ORIGIN

The expression "up in arms" originally signified an armed rebellion and is thought to stem from the 1500s. The figurative sense first appeared in the 1700s.

In the days of sailing ships, mutinies, which are essentially another form of being up in arms about something, were not uncommon. The mutiny on the English ship Bounty, which took place in 1789, has been relived in several books and films and tells the story of the onboard revolt against the strict and ill-tempered Captain Bligh. His harsh command of the ship gave the crew good reason to be up in arms.

Modern-day mutinies are rare, but situations where cruise ship passengers are up in arms are not. According to a story reported in the press in 2008, an angry mob numbering around 300 stormed the main area of the Miracle, a cruise ship operated by Carneval Lines.

Their complaint? Instead of an eight-day trip to the Caribbean, the captain charted a 1,300-mile detour to Newport, Rhode Island in the U.S. One might forgive the passengers for being up in arms at having their vacation plans ruined. However, the detour was made to avoid confronting a tropical storm that was brewing in the Atlantic.

Had the captain stayed on course, driving the ship through the middle of a hurricane, the passengers would have been "madder than a wet hen" and seasick to boot!

By the way, the expression "madder than" has several nice variations:

madder than a hornet
madder than a rattlesnake, or the extended version:
madder than a rattlesnake trying to bite a fencepost
madder than a junkyard dog
madder than a sack of badgers

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Practice OWAD in a conversation:

"Investors who have lost their life savings have every right to be UP IN ARMS."