topsy-turvy

comparative more topsy-turvy · superlative most topsy-turvy · alternative topside-turvy · alternative topsyturvy · alternative topsy turvy

1. Backwards or upside down; also, having been overturned or upset.

   Thou toyl'ſt in perrill, and the vvindie ſtorme, / Doth topſide-turuey toſſe thee as thou floteſt.

   [1594, Robert Garnier, translated by Thomas Kid [i.e., Thomas Kyd], Pompey the Great, His Faire Corneliaes Tragedie: […], London: […] [James Roberts] for Nicholas Ling, published 1595, →OCLC, act I, signature A2, verso

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   If we without his helpe can make a head / To puſh againſt a kingdome, with his helpe / We ſhal oreturne it topsie turuy down, [...]

   c. 1597 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fourth; […], quarto edition, London: […] P[eter] S[hort] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1598, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]

   China, and Ganges, and Japan, / Are Words my Papa taught my Pen. He ſays, they're Countries to be found, / In a ſtrange World, below the Ground; / Where Folks with Feet erected treat, / And diſtant, downward hang their Head; / Fearleſs they topſy turvy run, / With naught beneath—but Skies and Sun.

   1742, John Winstanley, “A Child’s Answer to an Invitation; Done by His Father”, in Poems Written Occasionally […], Dublin: […] S. Powell, for the author, →OCLC, pages 31–32

   [A]s the Parſon told us laſt Sunday, nobody believes in the Devil now-a-days; and here you bring about a Parcel of Puppets dreſt up like Lords and Ladies, only to turn the Heads of poor Country Wenches, and when their Heads are once turned topſy turvy, no wonder every thing elſe is ſo.

   1749, Henry Fielding, “From which it May be Inferred, that the Best Things are Liable to be Misunderstood and Misinterpreted”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume IV, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book XII, pages 231–232

   [...] Maggie [...] had stolen unperceived to her father's elbow again, listening with parted lips, while she held her doll topsy-turvy, and crushed its nose against the wood of the chair— [...]

   1860, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], “Mr Riley Gives His Advice Concerning a School for Tom”, in The Mill on the Floss […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book I (Boy and Girl), page 35

   Synonyms: inverted, reversed, downside up, reverse, up so down, upside down, upsidown, upsy-down

2. figurativelyNot in the natural order of things; in a disorderly manner; chaotically.

   Diuilliſh it is to deſtroy a cittie, but more then diuilliſhe, to euert citties, to betraye countreies, to cause ſeruaunts to kyll their maiſters, parentes theyr children, children their parentes, wiues their huſbandes, and to turne all things topſy turuy, and yet it doth ſo, as ſhalbe declared.

   1576, T[homas] R[ogers], “Of Loue”, in A Philosophicall Discourse, Entituled, The Anatomie of the Minde. […], London: […] I[ohn] C[harlewood] for Andrew Maunsell, […], →OCLC, folio 22, recto

comparative topsy-turvier · superlative topsy-turviest · alternative topsy-turvey · alternative topsyturvy · alternative topsy turvy

1. Backwards or upside down.

   This argument, vaguely political in nature, took place as often as the two men met. It was a topsy-turvy affair, for the Englishman was bitterly anti-English and the Indian fanatically loyal.

   1934 October, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Burmese Days, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, →OCLC; republished as chapter 3, in Burmese Days (ebook no. 0200051h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, November 2015

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   If I travel Aunt, I touch at your Antipodes—your Antipodes are a good raſcally ſort of topſy turvy Fellows—If I had a Bumper I'd ſtand upon my Head and drink a Health to ’em— [...]

   1700, [William] Congreve, The Way of the World, a Comedy. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, Act IV, scene x, pages 63–64

   Synonyms: inverted, reversed

2. figurativelyChaotic; disorderly.

   You have not kept her comfortable-easy. Something has turned her poor little mind topsy-turvies.

   [1872, [William] Wilkie Collins, “Lucilla’s Journal, Concluded”, in Poor Miss Finch. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley and Son, →OCLC, 2nd part, page 160

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   [John] Chrysostom saith, An Oath came in when Evils increased, when men appeared unfaithful, when all things became Topsy Turvy.

   1675, William Penn, “The Ground or Reason of Swearing”, in A Treatise of Oaths, Containing Several Weighty Reasons why the People Call’d Quakers Refuse to Swear: […], [London]: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 10

   It feels like I've stepped through the looking glass and am wandering in a topsy-turvy world where the fixpoints we have lived with for decades have gone. Not just moved … gone.

   2020 June 3, Stefanie Foster, “Comment: The Recovery Starts here”, in Rail, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3

   The model also implies that the Fed's dual mandate is internally consistent, that a soft landing from an inefficiently tight labor market is possible, and that the zero lower bound is not topsy-turvy.

   2026 September 28, Pascal Michaillat, Emmanuel Saez, “Beveridgean Phillips Curve”, in NBER Working Papers, number 35804, →DOI

plural topsy-turvies

1. countableAn act of turning something backwards or upside down, or the situation that something is in after this has happened.

   Perhaps he was at a loss for the points of compass, as is often the case in tumbles and topsy-turvies.

   1850, [Warren Burton], “Augustus Starr, the Privateer who Turned Pedagogue—His New Crew Mutiny, and Perform a Singular Exploit”, in The District School as It Was. […], revised edition, Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson and Company, […], →OCLC, page 159

2. countablefigurativelyA situation where the natural order of things has been upset.

   [I ...] has seed a heap of scatterments and topsyturvies: here's hoping dat you all may swim smoofly along the briny waves of sacrificin' time, and ford the Jordan of destructive equinoxes, while fiery billows roll beneath!

   1849, C[alvin] H[enderson] Wiley, “Boyish Conversation”, in Roanoke; or, “Where is Utopia?” […], Philadelphia, Pa.: T. B. Peterson & Brothers, […], published 1866, →OCLC, pages 110–111

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   The best-known examples of children’s nonsense language play, and their ‘topsy turvies’, or inversion of reality, are in Chukovsky, who asserts that such topsy turvies ‘strengthen (not weaken) the child’s awareness of reality’ [...].

   2006, Sue Robson, “Language, Communication and Thought”, in Developing Thinking and Understanding in Young Children: An Introduction for Students, Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 114

3. figurativelyuncountableChaos, confusion, disorder.

   Why should we [...] use it [our sense of the ludicrous] to degrade the healthy appetites and affections of our nature as they are seen to be degraded in insane patients whose system, all out of joint, finds matter for screaming laughter in mere topsy-turvy, [...?]

   [1879], George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], “[Impressions of Theophrastus Such.] Debasing the Moral Currency.”, in Impressions of Theophrastus Such, Essays and Leaves from a Note-book, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, page 97

present singular third person topsy-turvies · present singular third person topsy-turvys · participle present topsy-turvying · participle past topsy-turvied · past topsy-turvied · participle past topsy-turvyed · past topsy-turvyed · alternative topsy-turvey · alternative topsy turvy

1. transitiveTo turn topsy-turvy or upside down; to invert.

   The already lithified/hardened late Early/early Middle Oxfordian chunks/slabs of the oolitic limestones fragmented and rotated, even topsy-turvied upside down in the repetitive violent/explosive shake ups.

   2017, Jai Krishna, “High-resolution Intrabasinal to Inter-regional Geodynamic Chronicle during the Span of the Intra-Permian–Intra-Paleogene Mega-sequence in and around India on the GTM”, in The Indian Mesozoic Chronicle: Sequence Stratigraphic Approach (Springer Geology), Singapore: Springer Nature, →DOI, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 586

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   Mr. [George] Eliot's descriptions of scenery are perfect: [...] and so are his descriptions of children. [...] We forbear (though with regret) the introduction to our readers of Totty's bald doll, ignominously ‘topsy turvied’ by her insulting brother.

   1859 July, “Art. IX.—1. Adam Bede. By George Eliot. 3 vols. 1859. 2. Scenes of Clerical Life. By George Eliot. 2 vols. 1858. [book review]”, in The Edinburgh Review, or Critical Journal, volume CX, number CCXXIII, London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts; Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, →OCLC, page 241

2. figurativelytransitiveTo throw into chaos or disorder; to upset.

   It is one among their many greater advantages from this surprisal of the enemy, and sudden topsy-turvying of his plans.

   1865, Thomas Carlyle, “The Campaign Opens”, in History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, volume V, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book XVIII, page 16

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   [...] Mrs. Sykes said, ‘her man was the wust she ever knowed when he got topsy-turveyed.’ And as now, he began to get topsy-turveyed pretty regularly before he had finished his daily business with the retiring host of the Holly Bush, there was not much peace at home.

   [1854], G[eorge] E[liel] Sargent, “How the Legacy Went. In Two Chapters.”, in Moralities for Home, London: Groombridge and Sons. […], →OCLC, chapter II (How It Departed), page 148

   Has not a diluent expletive been interjected to fill up a line? has not a plain proposition been topsy-turvied, till subject and object are miserably confused, because of accent?

   1858 July–December, J. A., “Prose versus Verse”, in The New Monthly Belle Assemblée; a Magazine of Literature and Fashion, […], volume XLIX, London: Rogerson and Tuxford, […], →OCLC, page 188, column 1

   [M]y literary life was rather topsy-turveyed by a couple of untoward accidents last year, and a prostrating attack of influenza, and bronchitis subsequently, for the cure of which I am indebted to the climate of Portugal, [...]

   1892, M[aurice] O’Connor Morris, “Introduction”, in Memini: Or Reminiscences of Irish Life, London: Harrison & Sons, […], →OCLC, page ix

   Being from a lower caste, she earns her meager livelihood by cleaning the stairs and guarding the locality (the conventional roles are topsy turvyed).

   2007, “Portrayal of Diaspora Experiences”, in Basavaraj Naikar, editor, Indian English Literature, volume II, New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, →ISBN, page 195