above stairs

See also: abovestairs and above-stairs

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /əˌbʌv ˈstɝs/

Prepositional phrase

above stairs

1. (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.

2. (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

• above-stairs
• abovestairs

Translations

on an upper floor

• Dutch: op de verdieping hoger

Noun

above stairs (plural above-stairs)

1. (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