Word.ws English Dictionary

topsy-turvey

topsy-turvey is the alternative form of topsy-turvy.

Meaning of topsy-turvy

Adjective

topsy-turvy (comparative topsy-turvier, superlative topsy-turviest)

  1. Backwards or upside 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— [...]1700, [William] Congreve, The Way of the World, a Comedy. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, Act IV, scene x, pages 63–64
    Synonyms:
    inverted, reversed
  2. (figuratively) Chaotic; disorderly.
    • [John] Chrysostom saith, An Oath came in when Evils increased, when men appeared unfaithful, when all things became Topsy Turvy.1675, William Penn, “The Ground or Reason of Swearing”, in A Treatise of Oaths, Containing Several Weighty Reasons why the People Call’d Quakers Refuse to Swear: […], [London]: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 10

See all 9 meanings of topsy-turvy

Forms of topsy-turvey

Adjective
comparativemore topsy-turvey
superlativemost topsy-turvey
Verb
third-person singular presenttopsy-turveys
present participletopsy-turveying
past participletopsy-turveyed
pasttopsy-turveyed

Questions about topsy-turvey

What is topsy-turvey the alternative form of?
Topsy-turvey is the alternative form of topsy-turvy.

Words near topsy-turvey in the dictionary

  1. Topsy
  2. topsy turvied
  3. topsy turvies
  4. topsy turvy
  5. topsy turvyed
  6. topsy-turvey
  7. topsy-turveyed
  8. topsy-turvied
  9. topsy-turvier
  10. topsy-turvies
  11. topsy-turviest

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: topsy-turvey (page history and authors); topsy-turvy (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: “topsy-turvey.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/topsy-turvey. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.