Word.ws English Dictionary

upstairs-downstairs

upstairs-downstairs adjective: involving or relating to divisions or relations between different social classes, especially domestic servants and their upper-class employers.

Adjective

upstairs-downstairs (not comparable)

  1. Involving or relating to divisions or relations between different social classes, especially domestic servants and their upper-class employers.
    • In Gilded-Age Newport, an upstairs-downstairs romance between a well-born son and a humble maid is cut short of marriage.2015, Antoinette Stockenberg, Time After Time
    • How different the thrust of a college education is today. It is broadly accessible and egalitarian. But an upstairs-downstairs syndrome still exists in American higher education.2003, John A. Flower, Downstairs, Upstairs: The Changed Spirit and Face of College Life in America, page 166

Origin of upstairs-downstairs

From the practice of servants living on the lower floors or basements of grand houses, while their employers live on the upper floors.

Questions about upstairs-downstairs

What does upstairs-downstairs mean?
Upstairs-downstairs means involving or relating to divisions or relations between different social classes, especially domestic servants and their upper-class employers.
What part of speech is upstairs-downstairs?
Upstairs-downstairs is an adjective.

Words near upstairs-downstairs in the dictionary

  1. upstages
  2. upstaging
  3. upstagings
  4. upstair
  5. upstairs
  6. upstairs-downstairs
  7. upstand
  8. upstander
  9. upstanders
  10. upstanding
  11. upstandingly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: upstairs-downstairs (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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