rough-and-tumble vs topsy-turvy

rough-and-tumble

noun
  • A person who characteristically engages in such activity 

  • An environment of rough activity 

  • Rough activity; fighting or brawling; a fight. 

adj
  • active, vigorous and rough, with the possibility of harm 

  • highly competitive 

verb
  • Engage in rough-and-tumble activity 

topsy-turvy

noun
  • An act of turning something backwards or upside down, or the situation that something is in after this has happened. 

  • A situation where the natural order of things has been upset. 

  • Chaos, confusion, disorder. 

verb
  • To turn topsy-turvy or upside down; to invert. 

  • To throw into chaos or disorder; to upset. 

adv
  • Backwards or upside down; also, having been overturned or upset. 

  • Not in the natural order of things; in a disorderly manner; chaotically. 

adj
  • Chaotic; disorderly. 

  • Backwards or upside down. 

How often have the words rough-and-tumble and topsy-turvy occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )