Definitions for: Up


[adv] spatially or metaphorically from a lower to a higher position; "look up!"; "the music surged up"; "the fragments flew upwards"; "prices soared upwards"; "upwardly mobile"
[adv] to a later time; "they moved the meeting date up"; "from childhood upward"
[adv] to a more central or a more northerly place; "was transferred up to headquarters"; "up to Canada for a vacation"
[adv] nearer to the speaker; "he walked up and grabbed my lapels"
[adv] to a higher intensity; "he turned up the volume"
[adj] open; "the windows are up"
[adj] getting higher or more vigorous; "its an up market"; "an improving economy"
[adj] being or moving higher in position or greater in some value; being above a former position or level; "the anchor is up"; "the sun is up"; "he lay face up"; "he is up by a pawn"; "the market is up"; "the corn is up"
[v] raise; "up the ante"



Webster (1913) Definition: Up, adv. [AS. up, upp, ?p; akin to OFries. up, op, D. op,
OS. ?p, OHG. ?f, G. auf, Icel. ? Sw. upp, Dan. op, Goth. iup,
and probably to E. over. See Over.]
1. Aloft; on high; in a direction contrary to that of
gravity; toward or in a higher place or position; above;
-- the opposite of down.

But up or down, By center or eccentric, hard to
tell. --Milton.

2. Hence, in many derived uses, specifically:
(a) From a lower to a higher position, literally or
figuratively; as, from a recumbent or sitting
position; from the mouth, toward the source, of a
river; from a dependent or inferior condition; from
concealment; from younger age; from a quiet state, or
the like; -- used with verbs of motion expressed or
implied.

But they presumed to go up unto the hilltop.
--Num. xiv.
44.

I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth
up. --Ps.
lxxxviii. 15.

Up rose the sun, and up rose Emelye. --Chaucer.

We have wrought ourselves up into this degree of
Christian indifference. --Atterbury.
(b) In a higher place or position, literally or
figuratively; in the state of having arisen; in an
upright, or nearly upright, position; standing;
mounted on a horse; in a condition of elevation,
prominence, advance, proficiency, excitement,
insurrection, or the like; -- used with verbs of rest,
situation, condition, and the like; as, to be up on a
hill; the lid of the box was up; prices are up.

And when the sun was up, they were scorched.
--Matt. xiii.
6.

Those that were up themselves kept others low.
--Spenser.

Helen was up -- was she? --Shak.

Rebels there are up, And put the Englishmen unto
the sword. --Shak.

His name was up through all the adjoining
provinces, even to Italy and Rome; many desiring
to see who he was that could withstand so many
years the Roman puissance. --Milton.

Thou hast fired me; my soul's up in arms.
--Dryden.

Grief and passion are like floods raised in
little brooks by a sudden rain; they are quickly
up. --Dryden.

A general whisper ran among the country people,
that Sir Roger was up. --Addison.

Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for
any fate. --Longfellow.
(c) To or in a position of equal advance or equality; not
short of, back of, less advanced than, away from, or
the like; -- usually followed by to or with; as, to be
up to the chin in water; to come up with one's
companions; to come up with the enemy; to live up to
engagements.

As a boar was whetting his teeth, up comes a fox
to him. --L'Estrange.
(d) To or in a state of completion; completely; wholly;
quite; as, in the phrases to eat up; to drink up; to
burn up; to sum up; etc.; to shut up the eyes or the
mouth; to sew up a rent.

Note: Some phrases of this kind are now obsolete; as, to
spend up (--Prov. xxi. 20); to kill up (--B. Jonson).
(e) Aside, so as not to be in use; as, to lay up riches;
put up your weapons.

Note: Up is used elliptically for get up, rouse up, etc.,
expressing a command or exhortation. ``Up, and let us
be going.'' --Judg. xix. 28.

Up, up, my friend! and quit your books, Or surely
you 'll grow double. --Wordsworth.

It is all up with him, it is all over with him; he is lost.


The time is up, the allotted time is past.

To be up in, to be informed about; to be versed in.
``Anxious that their sons should be well up in the
superstitions of two thousand years ago.'' --H. Spencer.

To be up to.
(a) To be equal to, or prepared for; as, he is up to the
business, or the emergency. [Colloq.]
(b) To be engaged in; to purpose, with the idea of doing
ill or mischief; as, I don't know what he's up to.
[Colloq.]

To blow up.
(a) To inflate; to distend.
(b) To destroy by an explosion from beneath.
(c) To explode; as, the boiler blew up.
(d) To reprove angrily; to scold. [Slang]

To bring up. See under Bring, v. t.

To come up with. See under Come, v. i.

To cut up. See under Cut, v. t. & i.

To draw up. See under Draw, v. t.

To grow up, to grow to maturity.

Up anchor (Naut.), the order to man the windlass
preparatory to hauling up the anchor.

Up and down.
(a) First up, and then down; from one state or position to
another. See under Down, adv.

Fortune . . . led him up and down. --Chaucer.
(b) (Naut.) Vertical; perpendicular; -- said of the cable
when the anchor is under, or nearly under, the hawse
hole, and the cable is taut. --Totten.

Up helm (Naut.), the order given to move the tiller toward
the upper, or windward, side of a vessel.

Up to snuff. See under Snuff. [Slang]

What is up? What is going on? [Slang]


Up, prep.
1. From a lower to a higher place on, upon, or along; at a
higher situation upon; at the top of.

In going up a hill, the knees will be most weary; in
going down, the thihgs. --Bacon.

2. From the coast towards the interior of, as a country; from
the mouth towards the source of, as a stream; as, to
journey up the country; to sail up the Hudson.

3. Upon. [Obs.] ``Up pain of death.'' --Chaucer.


Up, n.
The state of being up or above; a state of elevation,
prosperity, or the like; -- rarely occurring except in the
phrase ups and downs. [Colloq.]

Ups and downs, alternate states of elevation and
depression, or of prosperity and the contrary. [Colloq.]

They had their ups and downs of fortune.
--Thackeray.


Up, a.
Inclining up; tending or going up; upward; as, an up look; an
up grade; the up train.

Synonyms: ahead(p), aweigh, dormie, dormy, heavenward, improving, in the lead, leading, raised, risen, rising, skyward, sprouted, upbound, upfield, upward, upward, upwardly, upwards

Antonyms: down, down, downward, downwardly, downwards

See Also: ascending(a), high, increase

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