An Irish guy* I trained with in the 70’s would say “ass over teacups.” His expression for “from head to toe” was “from asshole to breakfast.”
- Middle-aged Irishman from Ireland who’d emigrated to the States in the 60’s.
I think I first heard it from my husband, but I’m sure he didn’t get it from his folks, since they’d die before saying ass. He probably learned it from someone he was stationed with in the Navy.
I’ve heard it, or seen it; don’t remember when or where. I don’t think I run into it often.
I’ve heard it, probably in New York in the 1950s or 1960s.
My mother, born and raised in B.C., used it all the time.
Chicago, born 1975. Never heard of it or any of the variants mentioned here.
I’ve lived all 53 years of my life in Sacramento, CA. I don’t know that I’ve ever used the phrase myself, but I’ve known what it means for as long as I can remember.
My mother said it all the time. She was born and raised in Wisconsin. Never heard anyone else say it in California where I grew up.
Yep.
(It seems we must post more than five characters.)
Yes. I’ve heard it from virtually all my relations, from all over the country.
My dad used this expression every now and then. He grew up in Los Angeles, and did a hitch in the Navy. Can’t say which place he picked it up from. He kicked the bucket a few years back at age 90, so he’s not available to ask.
I grew up in New England. I have never heard that expression. I have heard
“ass over tit”, I think. But it’s not something in my repertoire.
I think I heard my dad say it a few times. He was 100% Californian - born in Ontario, CA, and lived in the Bay Area most of his life. His parents were Russian Jewish immigrants, so I don’t know where he might have heard it.
Yup, heard “ass over teakettle” growing up. (Maine in the 80’s.)
“Asses and elbows”, on the other hand was for working hard, usually something on the ground like weeding the garden.
Was it used in “Full Metal Jacket?”
I heard it from my mother, who was raised in central Pennsylvania, when I was growing up in south 'Jersey.
I’ve of course heard of ass over teakettle, what with having lived in New England since birth.
I’ve never heard of any of the alternatives in this thread, though, except asses and elbows, which has nothing to do with falling (it means to work harder/faster).
More read than heard, and not for a while now. I’ve used it on occasion. Most people seem to use “head over heels”, which is one of those phrases that makes no sense when you look at it closely. Isn’t your head normally over your heels?
ETA: And I see I’m not the first to make that observation. Ah, well.
People use the phrase “head over heels” to mean something other than being in love?
I learned “ass over teakettle” many years ago, when I was growing up in Toronto. I learned it from my Dad, but where he got it from, I have no idea.
Yep, know and use it, and also get puzzled reactions for it down here in the southlands.
For reference I’m pushin’ 60 pretty hard, grew up in Connecticut, and have lived most of my life in the northeast.