Topsy-turvy

Quick meaning: Topsy-turvy is an adverb meaning Backwards or upside down; also, having been overturned or upset.

Meaning

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

More Meanings

1. (figurative) Not in the natural order of things; in a disorderly manner; chaotically.
2. Backwards or upside down.
3. (figurative) Chaotic; disorderly.
4. (countable) An act of turning something backwards or upside down, or the situation that something is in after this has happened.
5. (countable, figurative) A situation where the natural order of things has been upset.
6. (uncountable, figurative) Chaos, confusion, disorder.
7. (transitive) To turn topsy-turvy or upside down; to invert.

Example Sentences

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

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

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— [...]

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.

Word Forms

• topside-turvy
• topsyturvy
• topsy-turvier
• topsy-turviest
• topsy-turvey
• topsy-turvies
• topsy-turvys
• topsy-turvying
• topsy-turvied
• topsy-turvyed

Synonyms for topsy-turvy

Depending on context, synonyms include inverted, reversed, reverse, upsidown, upsy-down, disorderly.

Antonyms for topsy-turvy

Common opposites include untied.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include higgledy-piggledy, hugger-mugger, jumbled, disorderly, untidy, counter.

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