ups and downs

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ups and downs pl (plural only)

1. (idiomatic) Periods of positive and negative events, moods, or interactions; highs and lows.

   Synonyms: (colloquial, rare) upsies and downsies, (formal) vicissitude

   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.

   • 1960 March, Alan Rannie, “The Friendships of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 170:

     But their friendship was not without its ups and downs, nor did they embark on many joint undertakings.

   • 1981 May 31, Robert Palmer, “Two Icons of Rock Music”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN, archived from the original on 18 April 2023:

     Only a handful of rock musicians have become genuine icons - larger-than-life symbolic figures whose personal triumphs and vicissitudes seem to mirror the ups and downs of rock as a whole, and sometimes of the society that nurtures it. Often, rock icons become the objects of personality cults that tend to overshadow their musical accomplishments.

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.