Phrase guide

arsy versy

adv · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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1

adv

Meaning 1

Tumbling upside down; head over heels; backwards.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: UK, idiomatic, not-comparable, vulgar

Examples

  • 1548, Nicholas Udall (translator), The Paraphrase of Erasmus upon the Newe Testamente, London: Edward Whitchurch, Volume 1, Luke 16, Who would not haue iudged that same ryche man to haue been a perfecte exaumple and paterne of most welthie and happy state: and this poore Lazare man to be a paterne of vtter miserie? But felicitie is in nowyse to be measured by such thinges as fortune geueth to men in this lyfe. But in the matter that we nowe speake of, altogether was sodainly turned in and out clene arsie versy.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Alteration of arsa versa, a blend of an alteration of arse + vice versa, modeled on vicey versey.