# upside down

Pronunciation: say "up-syd-DOWN" /ˌʌpsaɪd ˈdaʊn/

## Adverb

1. In an inverted position, so that what was the top is now at the bottom.
   - Simple: In a position where the top is now at the bottom.
   - _Someone had hung the painting upside down, and nobody at the gallery noticed for weeks._
   - _Turn the jar upside down for a minute to make sure the lid seals tightly._
3. So as to leave things in great disorder, with everything confused and out of place.
   - Simple: In a way that leaves everything in a big mess.
   - _Detectives turned the apartment upside down but never found the missing ledger._
   - _Losing her job turned her carefully laid plans upside down overnight._

## Adjective

2. In an inverted position, turned so that its top is at the bottom.
   - Simple: Turned over, so its top is at the bottom.
   - _The sign by the entrance was upside down, so its arrow pointed at the ceiling._
   - _Her company logo is a simple upside down triangle inside a circle._
4. In a state of great disorder, so confused or untidy that nothing is where it belongs.
   - Simple: Very messy and mixed up, with nothing where it should be.
   - _With the renovation half finished, the office was upside down for most of the spring._
   - _Her world has been upside down since the diagnosis, and she is still finding her feet._
5. Owing more money on something, such as a mortgaged home, than it is worth; having negative equity.
   - Simple: Owing more money on something you bought than it is now worth.
   - _When the housing market collapsed, thousands of homeowners found themselves upside down on their mortgages._
   - _Because he rolled his old loan into the new one, he was upside down on the truck the day he drove it home._

## Proper noun · Upside Down

6. A dark, horrifying version of reality in which the usual rules are different.
   - Simple: A dark and scary world where the usual rules are different.
   - _Nurses on the night shift joked that the ward had slipped into the Upside Down._
   - _The creature dragged its victims back into the Upside Down, where daylight never reached._

## Origin

**Meanings 1–5** — An alteration of the earlier phrase "up so down", from Middle English up-so-doun (also upsedowne, upsadowne), meaning "upside down". It is made of up + so + down, literally "up as down".
**Meaning 6** — Coined in the Netflix series Stranger Things, from upside down.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/upside-down (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).