up to eleven

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English

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WOTD – 2 March 2024

Etymology

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PIE word
*óynos

The term refers to a scene in the mockumentary This is Spinal Tap (1984), in which the character Nigel Tufnel, the lead guitarist of the band Spinal Tap, shows the director of the documentary Marty DiBergi a guitar amplifier with setting knobs that go from zero to eleven, rather than the standard zero to ten.[1]

Pronunciation

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Prepositional phrase

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up to eleven

  1. (idiomatic, informal, chiefly humorous) Up to or beyond the maximum possible threshold; to an extremely high or strong degree. [from 1984]
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:to the full
    • 1997, Matthew Branton, The Love Parade, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, published 2002, →ISBN, page 71:
      She and River looked at me hard; but I lowered my eyes and leaned forward, with the nonchalance turned up to eleven, extinguished my cigarette, made eye-contact and nodded curtly.
    • 2008 April, T. A. Pratt [pseudonym; Tim Pratt], chapter 15, in Poison Sleep, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Spectra, Bantam Dell, →ISBN, page 267:
      But if we try to fly, especially carrying Zealand, we're going to be puking our guts out by the time we get all the way up there. Flying is like motion sickness turned up to eleven, […]
    • 2008, Robin Jones Gunn, chapter 14, in Sisterchicks Go Brit! (A Sisterchicks Book), Colorado Springs, Colo.: Multnomah Books, Random House, →ISBN, page 147:
      Oh, Lady Ebb, I'm up to eleven today after that last biscuit.
    • 2010 May 22, Shane Hegarty, “Intimate details prove too close to the chat-show bone”, in The Irish Times‎[1], Dublin: Irish Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2016-04-22:
      It's the weekly half hour when the emotion is turned up to 11 but the atmosphere is so quietened that you can hear the dust clattering against the studio's lighting rig.
    • 2013, Mark Mason, “In which We Waver over a Fry-up, Learn How a Stand at Liverpool FC’s Ground Got Its Name, and Experience Fear and Loathing in Bristol”, in Move Along, Please: Land’s End to John O’Groats by Bus, London: Random House Books, →ISBN, page 73:
      As we reach the city today, rush hour has been turned up to eleven, so there's plenty of waiting in traffic.
    • 2013 May, Charles Baxter, “Loyalty”, in Ellen Rosenbush, editor, Harper’s Magazine, volume 326, number 1956, New York, N.Y.: Harper’s Magazine Foundation, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 81, column 1:
      [W]hen you look at conditions, it's not all happy days down there. Well, maybe it's happier now. But what our textbook said? Was that they had, you know, torture parties there. Once. Where torturers get drunk and turn the dial up to eleven.
    • 2014, Joseph O’Connor, chapter 9, in The Thrill of it All, London: Harvill Secker, →ISBN, page 154:
      It's not that London was unexciting. But I didn't understand it, felt lost. Its amp went up to eleven.
    • 2015 April 18, Helen Lewis, “If only the sci-fi writers who hijacked the Hugo awards had the wit to imagine a world beyond the Good Old Days”, in The Guardian‎[2], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-09-10:
      But because this is the internet, someone always has to pitch in and turn the hostility up to 11.

Usage notes

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Often used in the form to turn (something) up to eleven.[1]

Alternative forms

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Translations

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See also

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Verb

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up to eleven (third-person singular simple present ups to eleven, present participle upping to eleven, simple past and past participle upped to eleven)

  1. (transitive, slang) To increase (something) to an extremely high or strong degree; to make (something) go over the top.

Translations

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References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 “(up) to eleven” under “eleven, adj. and n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “up to eleven, phrase”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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