"not know which end is up" meaning in English

See not know which end is up in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-not know which end is up.ogg [Australia]
Head templates: {{head|en|verb|head=not know which end is up}} not know which end is up
  1. (idiomatic) To have no common sense; to be ignorant of the most basic facts; to be very confused. Tags: idiomatic Related terms: know which side one's bread is buttered on Translations (to have no common sense): 無知 (Chinese Mandarin), 无知 (wúzhī) (Chinese Mandarin), 沒有常識 (Chinese Mandarin), 没有常识 (méiyǒu chángshì) (Chinese Mandarin), ze niet allemaal op een rij hebben (Dutch), olla pihalla (Finnish), être à la masse (French), nicht wissen wo vorn und hinten ist (German), nie wiedzieć gdzie góra, a gdzie dół (Polish), não ter noção das coisas (Portuguese), не знать, что к чему́ (ne znatʹ, što k čemú) (Russian)

Download JSON data for not know which end is up meaning in English (3.3kB)

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      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "verb",
        "head": "not know which end is up"
      },
      "expansion": "not know which end is up",
      "name": "head"
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  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
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        {
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          "name": "Mandarin terms with redundant transliterations",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2009, Lis Wiehl, April Henry, Face of Betrayal, page 145",
          "text": "“I'm not some naïve, virginal little nothing who doesn't know which end is up.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To have no common sense; to be ignorant of the most basic facts; to be very confused."
      ],
      "id": "en-not_know_which_end_is_up-en-verb-ZK33r6b6",
      "links": [
        [
          "common sense",
          "common sense"
        ],
        [
          "confused",
          "confused"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To have no common sense; to be ignorant of the most basic facts; to be very confused."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "know which side one's bread is buttered on"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
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      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "to have no common sense",
          "word": "無知"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "wúzhī",
          "sense": "to have no common sense",
          "word": "无知"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "to have no common sense",
          "word": "沒有常識"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "méiyǒu chángshì",
          "sense": "to have no common sense",
          "word": "没有常识"
        },
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "to have no common sense",
          "word": "ze niet allemaal op een rij hebben"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "to have no common sense",
          "word": "olla pihalla"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "to have no common sense",
          "word": "être à la masse"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "to have no common sense",
          "word": "nicht wissen wo vorn und hinten ist"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "to have no common sense",
          "word": "nie wiedzieć gdzie góra, a gdzie dół"
        },
        {
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "to have no common sense",
          "word": "não ter noção das coisas"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "ne znatʹ, što k čemú",
          "sense": "to have no common sense",
          "word": "не знать, что к чему́"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-not know which end is up.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/ca/En-au-not_know_which_end_is_up.ogg/En-au-not_know_which_end_is_up.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/En-au-not_know_which_end_is_up.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "not know which end is up"
}
{
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      },
      "expansion": "not know which end is up",
      "name": "head"
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  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "know which side one's bread is buttered on"
    }
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  "senses": [
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        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with quotations",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2009, Lis Wiehl, April Henry, Face of Betrayal, page 145",
          "text": "“I'm not some naïve, virginal little nothing who doesn't know which end is up.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To have no common sense; to be ignorant of the most basic facts; to be very confused."
      ],
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          "common sense",
          "common sense"
        ],
        [
          "confused",
          "confused"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To have no common sense; to be ignorant of the most basic facts; to be very confused."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-not know which end is up.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/ca/En-au-not_know_which_end_is_up.ogg/En-au-not_know_which_end_is_up.ogg.mp3",
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      "tags": [
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    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "to have no common sense",
      "word": "無知"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "wúzhī",
      "sense": "to have no common sense",
      "word": "无知"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "to have no common sense",
      "word": "沒有常識"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "méiyǒu chángshì",
      "sense": "to have no common sense",
      "word": "没有常识"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "to have no common sense",
      "word": "ze niet allemaal op een rij hebben"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "to have no common sense",
      "word": "olla pihalla"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "to have no common sense",
      "word": "être à la masse"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "to have no common sense",
      "word": "nicht wissen wo vorn und hinten ist"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "to have no common sense",
      "word": "nie wiedzieć gdzie góra, a gdzie dół"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "to have no common sense",
      "word": "não ter noção das coisas"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "ne znatʹ, što k čemú",
      "sense": "to have no common sense",
      "word": "не знать, что к чему́"
    }
  ],
  "word": "not know which end is up"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c and c9440ce). 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.