Word.ws English Dictionary

up to here

up to here prepositional phrase: used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see up to, here.

Prepositional phrase

  1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see up to, here.
    • Just fill the bucket with water up to here.
  2. (idiomatic) Overwhelmed, busy, buried or swamped.
    • I have been up to here in paperwork all week.
    • They have their lives to live and I'm up to here in disgust with mine.1953, Raymond Chandler, chapter 12, in The Long Goodbye
  3. Used as an intensifier.
    • I have had it up to here with his sarcasm.
    • I am stuffed up to here with appetizers.

Forms of up to here

alternative formup to one's eyeballs
alternative formup to one's eyes
alternative formup to one's ears
alternative formup to one's neck

Origin of up to here

All such constructions, along with elbow-deep, knee-deep, waist-deep, neckdeep, and so on, rely on the same metaphor: the depth to which a wader or swimmer is submerged in a body of water.

Words formed from up to here

Questions about up to here

What does up to here mean?
Up to here means used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see up to, here.
What part of speech is up to here?
Up to here is a prepositional phrase.

Words near up to here in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: up to here (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 here.ogg.

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