know which end is up

Meaning: (idiomatic)To possess soundjudgmentorcommon sense; to have a clearunderstandingof asituation.Synonym:know which way is upHe was too stoned toknow which end was up.1992,Dorothy Garlock,Glorious Dawn‎[1],→ISBN:He's so in love, he doesn'tknow which end is up.2005, John C. Hefley,Failure Equals Death,→ISBN,page29:“I'll gladly take criticism from a cop whoknows which end is upand isn't afraid to do the job the way it should be done.”2009,Lis Wiehl,April Henry,Face of Betrayal,→ISBN,page145:“I'm not some naïve, virginal little nothing who doesn'tknow which end is up.”2010,Gordon Lish, “The Friend”, inCollected Fictions,→ISBN,page243:“[B]elieve me, she is some catch for the right boy—for a boy whichknows which end is up.”2011,Richard North Patterson,Silent Witness,→ISBN,page277:“When someone doesn'tknow which end is up, who knows why they do things.”2011,Catherine McGuinness,Emperors' Clothes‎[2],→ISBN,→ISBN:The whole company is in disarray! Nobodyknows which end is up.

Examples:

EN: I don't know which end is up. What do you mean, Al?
ES: Eddie, ¿podrías dejarme cinco billetes hasta el martes?
EN: He doesn't always know which end is up.
ES: No siempre sabe qué hacer.
EN: Look... this girl and the Father, they got their hooks in so deep... he doesn't know which end is up.
ES: Mira... esa chica y ese cura lo tienen tan atrapado en sus garras... que ya no sabe lo que está bien ni lo que está mal.
EN: I didn't know which end is up.
ES: No sabía qué estaba arriba.
EN: You don't know which end is up.
ES: Que te v uelv a loco.
EN: Getting in so deep that you don't even know which end is up.
ES: Involucrándome hasta no saber qué está bien y qué está mal.
EN: I don't know which end is up.
ES: Aún estoy desorientada.
ES: No sé ni cómo estoy despierto.
ES: No sé dónde terminará esto.
EN: I don't know which end is up anymore!
ES: ¡ Estoysubepara arriba, baja para abajoyya no sé !
EN: I'll rub your nose in enlisted men's crud till you don't know which end is up!
ES: ¡Te restregaré las narices en mierda de soldados... y no sabrás ni la hora que es!
EN: That boy does not know which end is up and you know that Miss Bobby Lee is in love with him.
ES: Esa joven no sabe nada de la vida. Y tú sabes que Bobby Lee está enamorada de él.
EN: You wouldn't know which end is up.
ES: Usted no sabría por dónde empezar.
EN: I swear, I just don't know which end is up anymore.
ES: Te juro que nunca más sabré como terminara.
EN: You twist things all around till I don't know which end is up.
ES: Retuerces tanto las cosas que no sé en que terminan.
EN: It's like I don't know which end is up.
ES: Es como si no supiera qué lado es el correcto.
EN: I don't know which end is up, Cathy.
ES: No sé qué parte se ha terminado, Cathy.

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).