arse about face
English
Alternative forms
- arse-about-face
- arse about front
- arse about tip
- arse about tit
Pronunciation
Audio (AU) (file)
Adjective
arse about face (not comparable)
- (slang, Britain, Australia, New Zealand) Placed or arranged the opposite way to the way it should be.
- No wonder it doesn't look right mate, you've got the whole thing arse about face.
- 2003, Ian Sansom, The Truth About Babies: From A-Z, Granta, →ISBN, page 256:
- It’s absurd, topsy-turvy, arse-about-face. But shit, nonetheless, demands a reading, and vice versa.
- 2004, Mick Lee, Scream If You Want To Go Faster, Authors On Line Ltd, →ISBN, page 78:
- Someone blows a hole in the head of the owner a couple of places along the Gap and nobody seems to give a shit. Fucking arse about face this fucking place.
- 2006, Peter North, quoting an anonymous member of a local currency scheme, “Self-Analysis: Do Members see LETS as a Social Movement?”, in Alternative Currency Movements As A Challenge To Globalisation?: A Case Study of Manchester's Local Currency Networks, Ashgate Publishing, →ISBN, Part II Manchester's Alternative Currency Networks, page 99:
- Like we didn't move here for my job, we came here (for ...) to become a student and study for a degree and it's arse about face. We tend to do things in an arse-about-face way no matter how hard we try. And I, at the risk of being hopelessly inarticulate I like the arse about face-ness of the LETS system.
- 2010, Sean Gallacher, The Eskimo, page 27:
- We've got it so arse about face in modern society.
- (slang, Britain, Australia, New Zealand) Arranged in a confused or haphazard way; muddled.
- 2006, Liz Jensen, Egg Dancing, page 212:
- Use them to inpregnant[sic] a woman: muddle up past and future, in-breed across time-zones, turn the family tree into a tangled bush, roots and shoots all arse about face.
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Adverb
arse about face (not comparable)
- (slang, Britain, Australia, New Zealand) In a manner that is opposite to or the reverse of the way it should be, backwards.
- 2005, Sam Smith, The End of Science Fiction, page 179:
- We've been looking at it arse about face.
- 2011, Russell Shaw, Easy: A Dogs Life, page 54:
- ‘Look, Mary. That chap is sitting arse about face. He's having a laugh. He can't be serious.’
‘Don't be so critical, George. More than likely it's his first time on a horse.’
- 2011, John Harvey, Rough Treatment, page 31:
- What was it about Charlie Resnick that made him so special? With his shirt still crumpled from the wash and his tie knotted arse-about-face.
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- (slang, Britain, Australia, New Zealand) In a confused or haphazard manner.
- 2005, John Orr, Hitchcock and 20th Century Cinema, page 67:
- Meanwhile the Law, as usual, tumbles arse about face: the killings multiply; the cops are clueless and duly arrest the wrong man.
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Synonyms
- (backwards): See also Thesaurus:contrarily
- (haphazard manner): See also Thesaurus:haphazardly