the wrong side of

English

Phrase

the wrong side of

1. Older than (the stated age, typically a decade).

   She looked to be the wrong side of forty.

   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     Two weary, worn-out men, one of them on the wrong side of forty, a rocking-stone to take off from, a trembling point of rock some few feet across to land upon, and a bottomless gulf to be cleared in a raging gale!

2. Used in various other expressions to refer to an inimical or disfavoured condition.

   the wrong side of the tracks, the wrong side of the law, the wrong side of history

See also

• get out of bed on the wrong side
• on the wrong foot