Meaning of arsy versy | Babel Free

Definitions

Tumbling upside down; head over heels; backwards.

British, idiomatic, not-comparable, vulgar

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.”

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

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

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

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

CEFR level