up to one's ears



up to one's ears

Also, in up to one's eyes or eyeballs or neck . Deeply involved; also, oversupplied, surfeited. For example, I'm up to my ears in work, or He's in up to his eyes with the in-laws. This hyperbolic and slangy idiom implies one is flooded with something up to those organs. The first was first recorded in 1839; up to the eyes in 1778; to the eyeballs in 1911; to the neck in 1856.
See also: ear, up

Common Names:

NameGenderPronouncedUsage
Mihailo-Serbian
PetriPET-ree (Finnish)Finnish, Basque
Angelina[ændʒi'li:nə]
Agrafenaah-grah-FYE-nah Russian
Tarastah-RAHS (Russian)Ukrainian, Russian
Salambek-Chechen