topsyturn

topsyturn

English

Verb

topsyturn (third-person singular simple present topsyturns, present participle topsyturning, simple past and past participle topsyturned)

1. (transitive) To turn upside down, or bring into a state of disorder.
   • 1993, Time (volume 141, issues 9-17, page 54)

     a Cockney couple who topsyturn a country estate

   • 2017, Daniel Kraus, The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch (volume 2, page 332)

     Since then I'd grown into my own, and this fist-chucking malcontent would topsyturn the whole enterprise if I let him, and thereby dawned my epiphany.

Related terms

• topsy-turvy