upstairs

adjective further upstairs · farther upstairs · furthest upstairs · farthest upstairs · up stairs · up-stairs

1. Located on a higher floor or level of a building. We rent out the upstairs bedroom to a student.
2. informal Pertaining to a pitched ball that is high, and usually outside the strike zone. That fastball was upstairs for a ball.
3. Originating in or associated with a higher matrix clause, as opposed to a lower embedded clause. Weaker (tolerant) quantificational values (some and many, sometimes and often) and stronger values (all, always) rule out any lower-clause reading for upstairs negation in the same contexts.

adverb further upstairs · farther upstairs · furthest upstairs · farthest upstairs · up stairs · up-stairs

1. Up the stairs; on or to a higher floor or level. I’ll take my shoes and put them away the next time I go upstairs.
2. informal In the brain or mind. After Joe did a hula dance on the kitchen table, his friends wondered if he didn’t have a lot going on upstairs.
3. informal In heaven, especially with regard to where a deity might be found.
4. In or to a higher matrix clause, as opposed to a lower embedded clause. Consider first the derivation in which movement is not involved, namely the surface subject is base-generated in the matrix clause (Recall that it is possible in principle to base generate the subject upstairs, as we saw in Section 2).

Opposite: downstairs

noun upstairs · up stairs · up-stairs

1. An upper storey. an upstairs bathroom
2. euphemistic, slang A woman's breasts.