English

Alternative forms

• up to the tonsils

Adverb

to the tonsils ‎(not comparable)

1. (figuratively, idiomatic, informal, postpositive) Entirely, completely, extremely, to the greatest degree.

   He was stuffed to the tonsils with cream crackers.

   We had both been stuffed up to the tonsils with excellent food.

   They sat there, robed up to the tonsils, and made me feel so below a juvenile delinquent.

   With resentments choking him up to the tonsils.

   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “chapter VI”, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, OCLC 1227855:

     And who could say how soon, if I continued to be always at his side, Wilbert Cream would get it up his nose and start attacking me with tooth and claw? Already his manner was that of a man whom the society of Bertram Wooster had fed to the tonsils, and one more sight of the latter at his elbow might quite easily make him decide to take prompt steps through the proper channels.

Synonyms

• to the brim
• to the full
• to the gills
• to the gunnels