ups and downs

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Noun

ups and downs pl (plural only)

  1. (idiomatic) Periods of positive and negative events, moods, or interactions; highs and lows.
    Heidi and Mike had their ups and downs, but they stayed married for more than 60 years.
    • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Our Street, page 34:
      So it is the world wags: that honest men and knaves alike are always having ups and downs of fortune, and that we are perpetually changing tenants in Our Street.
  2. Undulations.
    • 1960 August, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Trains Illustrated, page 463:
      [...] speed barely exceeded 30 m.p.h. until well beyond Kelty and from the front end the ups-and-downs of the track occasioned by pitfalls are very noticeable.

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