up the yin-yang
up the yin-yang prepositional phrase: synonym of out the wazoo.
Prepositional phrase
- Synonym of out the wazoo.
- We've got bananas up the yin-yang this week. Does anyone know how to make banana bread?
- ...the currently fashionable barbarism of plus used as a conjunction; and the reference to Ethel Merman as "The Merm"; and the misuse of a favorite slang expression ("... these Kander and Ebb songs did their duty up the yin-yang (sic)").1977, Educational Theatre Journal, volume 29, number 2, University and College Theatre Association.; American Theatre Association, page 280
- Synonyms:
- out the wazoo
Synonyms of up the yin-yang
Forms of up the yin-yang
| alternative form | out the ying yang |
|---|---|
| alternative form | up the yin yang |
| alternative form | up the ying yang |
| alternative form | up the ying-yang |
Origin of up the yin-yang
It has been suggested to derive from the meaning of the phrase "up the yin-yang", where "yin-yang", a reference to a circular Taoist symbol, is used euphemistically for the human anus; the suggestion, therefore, is that one has so much of some thing that some of that thing is to be found in one's colon, or otherwise beyond one's anus. The meaning of "up the yin-yang", then, is actually "to an excessive degree".
Questions about up the yin-yang
- What does up the yin-yang mean?
- Up the yin-yang means synonym of out the wazoo.
- What part of speech is up the yin-yang?
- Up the yin-yang is a prepositional phrase.
Words near up the yin-yang in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: up the yin-yang (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-up the ying yang.ogg.
Cite this entry: “up the yin-yang.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/up_the_yin-yang. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.