See know which end is up in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "From the common marking this end up on parcels to guide proper transport.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "knows which end is up",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "knowing which end is up",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "knew which end is up",
"tags": [
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "known which end is up",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
}
],
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{
"args": {
"1": "know<,,knew,known> which end is up"
},
"expansion": "know which end is up (third-person singular simple present knows which end is up, present participle knowing which end is up, simple past knew which end is up, past participle known which end is up)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
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"examples": [
{
"text": "He was too stoned to know which end was up.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1992, Dorothy Garlock, Glorious Dawn, →ISBN:",
"text": "He's so in love, he doesn't know which end is up.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2005, John C. Hefley, Failure Equals Death, →ISBN, page 29:",
"text": "“I'll gladly take criticism from a cop who knows which end is up and isn't afraid to do the job the way it should be done.”",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2009, Lis Wiehl, April Henry, Face of Betrayal, →ISBN, page 145:",
"text": "“I'm not some naïve, virginal little nothing who doesn't know which end is up.”",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2010, Gordon Lish, “The Friend”, in Collected Fictions, →ISBN, page 243:",
"text": "“[B]elieve me, she is some catch for the right boy—for a boy which knows which end is up.”",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2011, Richard North Patterson, Silent Witness, →ISBN, page 277:",
"text": "“When someone doesn't know which end is up, who knows why they do things.”",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2011, Catherine McGuinness, Emperors' Clothes, →ISBN, →ISBN:",
"text": "The whole company is in disarray! Nobody knows which end is up.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To possess sound judgment or common sense; to have a clear understanding of a situation."
],
"id": "en-know_which_end_is_up-en-verb-ciBtR422",
"links": [
[
"judgment",
"judgment"
],
[
"common sense",
"common sense"
],
[
"understanding",
"understanding"
],
[
"situation",
"situation"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To possess sound judgment or common sense; to have a clear understanding of a situation."
],
"related": [
{
"word": "know one's way around"
},
{
"word": "know which side one's bread is buttered on"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "know which way is up"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "understanding in a specific situation",
"word": "vide hvilken vej der vender op"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "understanding in a specific situation",
"word": "olla kärryillä"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"note": "not know which end is up",
"sense": "understanding in a specific situation",
"word": "olla pihalla"
}
]
}
],
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"audio": "En-au-know which end is up.ogg",
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],
"word": "know which end is up"
}
{
"etymology_text": "From the common marking this end up on parcels to guide proper transport.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "knows which end is up",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "knowing which end is up",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "knew which end is up",
"tags": [
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "known which end is up",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
}
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"1": "know<,,knew,known> which end is up"
},
"expansion": "know which end is up (third-person singular simple present knows which end is up, present participle knowing which end is up, simple past knew which end is up, past participle known which end is up)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"related": [
{
"word": "know one's way around"
},
{
"word": "know which side one's bread is buttered on"
}
],
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"Terms with German translations",
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"examples": [
{
"text": "He was too stoned to know which end was up.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1992, Dorothy Garlock, Glorious Dawn, →ISBN:",
"text": "He's so in love, he doesn't know which end is up.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2005, John C. Hefley, Failure Equals Death, →ISBN, page 29:",
"text": "“I'll gladly take criticism from a cop who knows which end is up and isn't afraid to do the job the way it should be done.”",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2009, Lis Wiehl, April Henry, Face of Betrayal, →ISBN, page 145:",
"text": "“I'm not some naïve, virginal little nothing who doesn't know which end is up.”",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2010, Gordon Lish, “The Friend”, in Collected Fictions, →ISBN, page 243:",
"text": "“[B]elieve me, she is some catch for the right boy—for a boy which knows which end is up.”",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2011, Richard North Patterson, Silent Witness, →ISBN, page 277:",
"text": "“When someone doesn't know which end is up, who knows why they do things.”",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2011, Catherine McGuinness, Emperors' Clothes, →ISBN, →ISBN:",
"text": "The whole company is in disarray! Nobody knows which end is up.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To possess sound judgment or common sense; to have a clear understanding of a situation."
],
"links": [
[
"judgment",
"judgment"
],
[
"common sense",
"common sense"
],
[
"understanding",
"understanding"
],
[
"situation",
"situation"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To possess sound judgment or common sense; to have a clear understanding of a situation."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "know which way is up"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
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{
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"translations": [
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "understanding in a specific situation",
"word": "vide hvilken vej der vender op"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "understanding in a specific situation",
"word": "olla kärryillä"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"note": "not know which end is up",
"sense": "understanding in a specific situation",
"word": "olla pihalla"
}
],
"word": "know which end is up"
}
Download raw JSONL data for know which end is up meaning in English (4.2kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.