ups and downs
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English
Pronunciation
Audio (General Australian): (file)
Noun
ups and downs pl (plural only)
- (idiomatic) Periods of positive and negative events, moods, or interactions; highs and lows.
- Heidi and Mike had their ups and downs, but they stayed married for more than 60 years.
- 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Our Street, page 34:
- So it is the world wags: that honest men and knaves alike are always having ups and downs of fortune, and that we are perpetually changing tenants in Our Street.
- Undulations.
- 1960 August, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Trains Illustrated, page 463:
- [...] speed barely exceeded 30 m.p.h. until well beyond Kelty and from the front end the ups-and-downs of the track occasioned by pitfalls are very noticeable.
Synonyms
- vicissitudes (formal)
Translations
idiomatic
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