inside out

1. Extremely well, thoroughly, especially alluding to knowing something. For example, He knows this system inside out . [First half of 1900s]

2. With the inner surface turned out or revealed, as in He wore his shirt inside out . This expression dates from about 1600 and was soon used figuratively, as in He turned the verses inside out and revealed their hidden sense .

Example Sentences

"I know this man inside out," he declares.

From BBC

“Dave really knew the S.N.E.S. inside out, so he could push it as hard as he could to make it do things that people hadn’t heard before,” the video game composer Grant Kirkhope said.

From New York Times

One woman who walked into the site wearing a Harris-Walz campaign shirt was asked to turn the shirt inside out.

From BBC

There’s something else you should know about him: if there’s any leader who knows Vladimir Putin inside out, it is Lukashenko.

From BBC

"We are dying from the inside out and if something doesn't change drastically in the next year or two, people will stop coming into town and we will lose more and more shops."

From BBC

Related Words

• backwards
• in disorder
• inside-out
• upside-down