turn upside down

English

Alternative forms

• turn upside-down

Verb

turn upside down (third-person singular simple present turns upside down, present participle turning upside down, simple past and past participle turned upside down)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To flip over; to rotate top to bottom.

   Synonyms: flip over, turn over

   Turn the box upside down and look at the bottom.

2. (transitive, idiomatic) To thoroughly examine.

   They turned the house upside down looking for the car keys.

3. (transitive, idiomatic) To alter (something) significantly, often in a negative way.
   • 2003 October 30, Daniel Taylor, “Ferdinand may miss Euro 2004”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Rio Ferdinand will almost certainly miss out on Euro 2004, and possibly much more, because of the missed drug test which has turned his life upside down.

Translations

to rotate top to bottom

• Arabic: جَعَلَ عَالِيَ الشَّيْءِ سَافِلَهُ (jaʕala ʕāliya š-šayʔi sāfilahu), قَلَبَ (ar) (qalaba), كَفَأَ (kafaʔa)
• French: renverser (fr)
• Galician: envorcar, voltear (gl)
• German: umdrehen (de)
• Hungarian: felfordít (hu)
• Korean: 뒤집어엎다 (dwijibeo'eopda), 엎다 (eopda)
• Latin: invertō
• Ngazidja Comorian: ukausa
• Spanish: dar la vuelta, girar (es), voltear (es)

to thoroughly examine

• Hungarian: felforgat (hu), tűvé tesz

to alter significantly, often in a negative way

• Hungarian: felforgat (hu), feje tetejére állít