above stairs
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: abovestairs and above-stairs
Pronunciation
- (General American) IPA(key): /əˌbʌv ˈstɝs/
Prepositional phrase
- (archaic) Upstairs; in or on an upper floor.
- 1749, Henry Fielding, “Containing Matter Rather Natural than Pleasing”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume II, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, page 183:
- The Phyſician now arrived, and began to enquire of the two Diſputants, how we all did above Stairs? 'In a miſerable Way,' anſwered Thwackum.
- 1877 February, Henry James, Jr., chapter XIX, in The American, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, […], published 5 May 1877, →OCLC, page 334:
- She took him to a room above-stairs, and introduced him to a bed on which a magnified bolster, in yellow calico, figured as a counterpane.
- 1901, M. P. Shiel, The Lord of the Sea:
- He was found above-stairs in an empty room, searching the floor for something.
- (British, historical) In or pertaining to the part of a large house, typically the above-ground rooms, in which the owning family lives, contrasted with below stairs where the servants are accommodated.
Alternative forms
Translations
on an upper floor
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Noun
above stairs (plural above-stairs)
- (archaic) The part of a building above the ground level.
Further reading
- Philip Babcock Gove (editor), Webster's Third International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (G. & C. Merriam Co., 1976 [1909], →ISBN), page 5
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