Dictionary

the wrong side of en · X

Meanings

1. Older than (the stated age, typically a decade).
   • 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! 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
   • She looked to be the wrong side of forty.
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

Relateds

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