Word.ws English Dictionary

head down, bum up

head down, bum up adverb: hard at work; preparing oneself to work hard.

Adverb

head down, bum up (not comparable)

  1. (UK, slang, vulgar) Hard at work; preparing oneself to work hard.
    • Hadn't heard a thing. Hard at work, head down, bum up.2007 April 6, Gold Coast Bulletin, "Call of Sea Sirens"

Synonyms of head down, bum up

Origin of head down, bum up

From an assumed position of strenuous work. Compare nose to the grindstone.

Questions about head down, bum up

What does head down, bum up mean?
Head down, bum up means hard at work; preparing oneself to work hard.
What part of speech is head down, bum up?
Head down, bum up is an adverb.

Words near head down, bum up in the dictionary

  1. head crashes
  2. head doctor
  3. head doctors
  4. head down, arse up
  5. head down, ass up
  6. head down, bum up
  7. head dress
  8. head dresses
  9. head earing
  10. head fake
  11. head fakes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: head down, bum up (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-head down, bum up.ogg.

Cite this entry: “head down, bum up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/head_down%2C_bum_up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.