«لَا فُوقْ وَلَا تَحْتْ»

The saying labels a person as a complete nonentity: someone with no ambition and no practical use, who cannot be placed anywhere on a scale of worth. By denying the person either a high or a low position, it suggests they barely register at all.

The force comes from the paired negation; the spatial words are figurative and say nothing about physical position. Being low would at least be a position; being placed neither up nor down implies emptiness. The phrase thus expresses contempt, summing up a person as amounting to nothing.

Use it as a disparaging, dismissive remark about someone judged to lack drive and contribute nothing, as when explaining why they cannot be relied upon. It suits informal, critical talk, and because it attacks a person's worth, it can wound if applied carelessly.