Word.ws English Dictionary

up to eleven

UK/ˌʌp tə ɪˈlɛvən/US/ˌʌp tə ɪˈlɛvən/

up to eleven prepositional phrase: up to or beyond the maximum possible threshold; to an extremely high or strong degree.

up to eleven: up to or beyond the maximum possible threshold; to an extremely high or strong degree
Image: Rose Abrams, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Prepositional phrase

  1. (humorous, idiomatic, informal) Up to or beyond the maximum possible threshold; to an extremely high or strong degree.
    • She and River looked at me hard; but I lowered my eyes and leaned forward, with the nonchalance turned up to eleven, extinguished my cigarette, made eye-contact and nodded curtly.1997, Matthew Branton, The Love Parade, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, published 2002, →ISBN, page 71
    • But if we try to fly, especially carrying Zealand, we're going to be puking our guts out by the time we get all the way up there. Flying is like motion sickness turned up to eleven, […]2008 April, T. A. Pratt [pseudonym; Tim Pratt], chapter 15, in Poison Sleep, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Spectra, Bantam Dell, →ISBN, page 267

Verb

up to eleven (third-person singular simple present ups to eleven, present participle upping to eleven, simple past and past participle upped to eleven)

  1. (slang, transitive) To increase (something) to an extremely high or strong degree; to make (something) go over the top.

Examples of up to eleven in a sentence

  • Oh, Lady Ebb, I'm up to eleven today after that last biscuit.2008, Robin Jones Gunn, chapter 14, in Sisterchicks Go Brit! (A Sisterchicks Book), Colorado Springs, Colo.: Multnomah Books, Random House...
  • As we reach the city today, rush hour has been turned up to eleven, so there's plenty of waiting in traffic.2013, Mark Mason, “In which We Waver over a Fry-up, Learn How a Stand at Liverpool FC’s Ground Got Its Name, and Experience Fear and...
  • Where torturers get drunk and turn the dial up to eleven.2013 May, Charles Baxter, “Loyalty”, in Ellen Rosenbush, editor, Harper’s Magazine, volume 326, number 1956, New York, N.Y.: Harper’s...

Synonyms of up to eleven

9 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Forms of up to eleven

Prepositional phrase
alternative formup to 11
Verb
third-person singular presentups to eleven
present participleupping to eleven
past participleupped to eleven
pastupped to eleven

Origin of up to eleven

PIE word *h₁óynos The term refers to a scene in the mockumentary This is Spinal Tap (1984), in which the character Nigel Tufnel, the lead guitarist of the band Spinal Tap, shows the director of the documentary Marty DiBergi a guitar amplifier with setting knobs that go from zero to eleven, rather than the standard zero to ten.

Words that rhyme with up to eleven

4 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about up to eleven

What does up to eleven mean?
Up to eleven means up to or beyond the maximum possible threshold; to an extremely high or strong degree.
How do you use up to eleven in a sentence?
Oh, Lady Ebb, I'm up to eleven today after that last biscuit.
What part of speech is up to eleven?
Up to eleven can be a prepositional phrase or a verb.
How do you pronounce up to eleven?
Up to eleven is pronounced /ˌʌp tə ɪˈlɛvən/ (UK).

Words near up to eleven in the dictionary

  1. up to a point
  2. up to anything
  3. up to bat
  4. up to code
  5. up to date
  6. up to eleven
  7. up to here
  8. up to no good
  9. up to now
  10. up to one's ass in alligators
  11. up to one's chin

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: up to eleven (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.

Last updated:

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

Cite this entry: “up to eleven.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/up_to_eleven. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.