upper story

Idioms  

1. 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

See Examples For:

upper story

Standing outside the city hospital, Karim El Baridi said his uncle was being treated for broken ribs after leaping out of an upper story for fear his building would collapse.

From Reuters ● Sep. 9, 2023

Shortly after midnight, a motorcyclist passing by noticed smoke coming from an upper story and alerted guards.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 11, 2023

But even the electrical fire that gutted the upper story and forced closure of the restaurant for two years while repairs were done could not kill Off Vine.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 25, 2023

He shared a photo of a person holding a light in the window of a damaged upper story, where the whole face of the building had been shorn off.

From New York Times ● Jan. 14, 2023

The upper story was plaster and timber with stone reinforcing the comers.

From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss

Related Words

• head
• intellect
• mind