Meaning of up to eleven | Babel Free

Definitions

Up to or beyond the maximum possible threshold; to an extremely high or strong degree.

humorous, idiomatic, informal

Equivalents

Examples

“She and River looked at me hard; but I lowered my eyes and leaned forward⟳, with the nonchalance turned up to eleven, extinguished my cigarette, made eye-contact and nodded curtly.”

“But if we try⟳ to fly⟳, especially carrying Zealand, we're going to be puking our guts out by the time we get⟳ all the way up there. Flying is like⟳ motion sickness turned up to eleven, […]”

“Oh, Lady Ebb, I'm up to eleven today after that last⟳ biscuit.”

“It's the weekly half hour when the emotion is turned up to 11 but the atmosphere is so quietened that you can hear⟳ the dust clattering against the studio's lighting rig.”

“As we reach⟳ the city today, rush⟳ hour has been turned up to eleven, so there's plenty of waiting in traffic.”

“[W]hen you look⟳ at conditions, it's not all happy days down there. Well, maybe it's happier now. But what our textbook said? Was that they had, you know⟳, torture parties there. Once. Where torturers get⟳ drunk and turn⟳ the dial up to eleven.”

“It's not that London was unexciting. But I didn't understand⟳ it, felt lost. Its amp went up to eleven.”

“But because this is the internet, someone always has to pitch in and turn⟳ the hostility up to 11.”

CEFR level