arsy versy

alternative arsey versey · alternative arsy versey · alternative arsey versy · alternative arsy varsy

1. UKidiomaticnot comparablevulgarTumbling upside down; head over heels; backwards.

   Dost thou not know that from the beginning the world goes arsie-versie.

   1612, Benvenuto, The Passenger of Benvenuto

   4 more examples

   1548, Nicholas Udall (translator), The Paraphrase of Erasmus upon the Newe Testamente, London: Edward Whitchurch, Volume 1, Luke 16, Who would not haue iudged that same ryche man to haue been a perfecte exaumple and paterne of most welthie and happy state: and this poore Lazare man to be a paterne of vtter miserie? But felicitie is in nowyse to be measured by such thinges as fortune geueth to men in this lyfe. But in the matter that we nowe speake of, altogether was sodainly turned in and out clene arsie versy.

   […] the estate of that flourishing towne was turned arsie versie, topside the otherwaie, and from abundance of prosperitie quite exchanged to extreame penurie.

   1587, Raphael Holinshed et al., “The Description of Ireland”, in Chronicles of England, Scotlande and Irelande, page 26

   “You put your back up in the wrong place and you’re passive in the wrong place. You’ve got everything arsy-versy. […]”

   1975, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York: Viking, page 457

   Us going in on foot and then the equipment being airlifted in is about as arsy-versy as you can get.

   1989, Julian Barnes, chapter 8, in A History of the World in 10½ Chapters, New York: Knopf, page 194

   Synonyms: ass over teakettle, ass backwards, back-asswards