upstairs

Formsfurther upstairs, farther upstairs, furthest upstairs, farthest upstairs

Formsfurther upstairs, farther upstairs, furthest upstairs, farthest upstairs

1. 1
   adverb

   Up the stairs; on or to a higher floor or level of a building.

   He carried the heavy boxes upstairs one at a time.

   The accounting offices are upstairs, above the main lobby.

   Similarup, above

   Oppositedownstairs, below

   Note

   Here the word gives pure direction or location, and it often follows a noun to place someone: the people upstairs, the woman upstairs. Older writing splits it in two. Letitia Elizabeth Landon's Lady Anne Granard (1838) has "more dancing and singing up stairs, more wit and conversation below." The closed form is now the norm, and below or downstairs is its natural partner.

2. 2
   adjective

   Found on one of the upper floors or levels in a building.

   The upstairs windows look out over the back garden.

   Guests usually stay in one of the upstairs bedrooms.

   Similarupper

   Oppositedownstairs

   Note

   A compound that kept its plural ending: up- plus stair plus -s. The adjective therefore looks like a plural noun, but it never changes for number, as in the upstairs bedroom and the upstairs bedrooms. It does not take more or most either. When a comparison is needed, English reaches for further or farther: a room further upstairs, the bedroom farthest upstairs.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The upper floor or floors of a building.

   They converted the upstairs into a separate apartment.

   The whole upstairs smelled of fresh paint after the renovation.

   Oppositedownstairs

   Note

   The noun is singular despite its -s: an upstairs, the whole upstairs. Its plural is spelled the same way, so only the surrounding words show whether one floor or several is meant. It carries the same stair-plus-s ending as the adjective, and it nearly always comes with the or another determiner in front of it.

4. 4
   adverbcolloquial

   In the mind or brain, regarded as the seat of thought.

   The old captain stayed sharp upstairs even as his body weakened.

   There isn't a whole lot happening upstairs with that one.

5. 5
   adverbcolloquial

   In heaven, especially as the place where God is imagined to be found.

   After surviving the crash, he figured someone upstairs was on his side.

   They prayed that the one upstairs would finally hear them.

   Similarabove

6. 6
   adjectivecolloquial

   In baseball, describing a pitched ball that crosses high, usually above the strike zone.

   He kept the hitter off balance with an upstairs fastball.

   The two-strike pitch was upstairs, well above the letters.

   Similarhigh

   Oppositelow

   Note

   Baseball turns the strike zone into a building, and a pitch that goes upstairs has missed high, up around or above the hitter's letters. The word sits most comfortably after a verb, as in the fastball was upstairs. The call that usually follows is a ball, so you hear it as upstairs for a ball. It belongs to informal talk about the game.

7. 7
   nounslangeuphemisticuncountable

   A slang term for a woman's breasts.

   Her low-cut dress left little of her upstairs to the imagination.

   He made a crude joke about her upstairs and got slapped for it.

   Similarchest, bust, bosom

   Note

   A euphemism that borrows the floor plan of a house for the body, the same move behind the "mind" meaning. It is slang, and the coyness does not make it polite. In most company it lands as a crude joke rather than a delicate one, so keep it to banter where that tone is clearly wanted.

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