v. Also 7 topside-turn. Now rare. [f. topsy as in TOPSY-TURVY + TURN v.: cf. the form topsiturnie s. v. TOPSY-TURVY adv. ¶ θ. Sometimes hyphened; also used analytically, to turn topsy.] trans. To turn topsy-turvy, turn upside down; fig. to throw into confusion. Hence Topsy-turning vbl. sb.
1573. Twyne, Æneid, X. Dd iv b. Than graue Auletes went, and with his hundred beating ores, He topsy turnes up streames [L. centenaque arbore fluctus Verberat assurgens].
1605. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iii. I. Vocation, 744. He … by his travell topsi-turneth then The live and dead, and half-dead horse and men. Ibid. (1608), II. iv. III. Schisme, 919. Now the furious waues All topsie-turned by th’ Æolian slaues Do mount & roule.
1632. Heywood, Iron Age, V. i. Wks. 1874, III. 341. This obiect … Which topsiturnes my braine. Ibid. (1637), Dialogues, IX. ibid. VI. 214. All things are topside-turn’d.
1664. Cotton, Scarron., 108. Then turning’t [a mug] Topsey on her Thumb Says look, here’s Supernaculum.
1870. S. Bowles, in Merriam, Life, xxxviii. (1885), II. 159. In the presence of such wickedness, of such suffering, of such topsy-turning of right and wrong.
