Word.ws English Dictionary

known which end is up

known which end is up is the past participle of know which end is up.

Meaning of know which end is up

Verb

know which end is up (third-person singular simple present knows which end is up, present participle knowing which end is up, simple past knew which end is up, past participle known which end is up)

  1. (idiomatic) To possess sound judgment or common sense; to have a clear understanding of a situation.
    • He was too stoned to know which end was up.

Questions about known which end is up

What is known which end is up the past participle of?
Known which end is up is the past participle of know which end is up.

Words near known which end is up in the dictionary

  1. known what's o'clock
  2. known when to fold 'em
  3. known where one stood
  4. known where the bodies were buried
  5. known whether one was Arthur or Martha
  6. known which end is up
  7. known which side one's bread is buttered on
  8. known which side one's bread was buttered on
  9. known-ciphertext attack
  10. known-ciphertext attacks
  11. known-plaintext attack

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: known which end is up (page history and authors); know which end is 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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Cite this entry: “known which end is up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/known_which_end_is_up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.