upper story

Idioms and Phrases

The head or brain, as in He's not all there in the upper story . This expression transfers the literal sense of a higher floor in a multistory building to the top portion of the human body. Richard Bentley used it in A Dissertation on the Epistles of Phalaris (1699), where he compares a man with “brains ... in his head” to a man who has “furniture in his upper story.”

Example Sentences

She partly opened the wooden shutter again and pointed to an upper story of the opposite building.

From Project Gutenberg

And the roof was not necessary, for the floors of the upper story served instead.

From Project Gutenberg

The greater part of the upper story does not date further back than the fifteenth century.

From Project Gutenberg

Mary slept that night in the same chamber as Morgiana, an airy, high-vaulted room, in an upper story of the palace.

From Project Gutenberg

There are paved roads, large quadrangular porticos, both on a level with the ground and with an upper story.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• head
• intellect
• mind