1
a(1)
: in or into a higher position or level
especially
: away from the center of the earth
(2)
: from beneath the ground or water to the surface
(3)
: from below the horizon
(4)
(5)
: in or into an upright position
sit up
especially
: out of bed
b
: upward from the ground or surface
pull up a daisy
c
: so as to expose a particular surface
2
: with greater intensity
speak up
3
a
: in or into a better or more advanced state
b
: at an end
your time is up
c
: in or into a state of greater intensity or excitement
d
: to or at a greater speed, rate, or amount
prices went up
e
: in a continual sequence : in continuance from a point or to a point
from third grade up
at prices of $10 and up
up until now
4
a(1)
: into existence, evidence, prominence, or prevalence
(2)
: into operation or practical form
b
: into consideration or attention
bring up for discussion
5
: into possession or custody
6
a
: entirely, completely
button up your coat
b
—used as an intensifier
clean up the house
7
: in or into storage : by
lay up supplies
8
a
: so as to arrive or approach
b
: in a direction conventionally the opposite of down:
(1)
: to windward
(2)
(3)
: to or at the top
(4)
: to or at the rear of a theatrical stage
9
: in or into parts
10
: to a stop
—usually used with draw, bring, fetch, or pull
11
: for each side
the score is 15 up
1
a
: risen above the horizon
the sun is up
b
: standing
c
: being out of bed
d
: relatively high
the river is up
was well up in her class
e
: being in a raised position : lifted
windows are up
f
: being in a state of completion : constructed, built
g
: having the face upward
h
: mounted on a horse
a new jockey up
i
: grown above a surface
the corn is up
j(1)
: moving, inclining, or directed upward
the up escalator
(2)
: bound in a direction regarded as up
2
a(1)
: marked by agitation, excitement, or activity
(2)
: positive or upbeat in mood or demeanor
b
: being above a former or normal level (as of quantity or intensity)
attendance is up
the wind is up
c
: exerting enough power (as for operation)
sail when steam is up
d
: ready
specifically
: highly prepared
e
: going on : taking place
find out what is up
3
a
: risen from a lower position
men up from the ranks
b
: being at the same level or point
did not feel up to par
c(1)
: well informed : abreast
up on the news
(2)
: being on schedule
up on his homework
d
: being ahead of one's opponent
4
a
: presented for or undergoing consideration
contract up for negotiation
also
: charged before a court
up for robbery
b
: being the one whose turn it is
you're up next
1
a
—used as a function word to indicate motion to or toward or situation at a higher point of
went up the stairs
b
: up into or in the
was hid away up garret—
Mark Twain
Mark Twain2
a
: in a direction regarded as being toward or near the upper end or part of
lives a few miles up the coast
walked up the street
b
: toward or near a point closer to the source or beginning of
sail up the river
3
: in the direction opposite to
sailed up the wind
1
: one in a high or advantageous position
2
: an upward slope
3
: a period or state of prosperity or success
4
5
: a fundamental quark that has an electric charge of +2/3 and that is one of the constituents of a nucleon
upped
ˈəpt 
or in intransitive verb sense 2 up; upped; upping; ups or in intransitive verb sense 2 up
or in intransitive verb sense 2 up; upped; upping; ups or in intransitive verb sense 2 up
1
a
: to rise from a lying or sitting position
b
: to move upward : ascend
2
—used with and and another verb to indicate that the action of the following verb was either surprisingly or abruptly initiated
he up and quit his job
2
b
Upper Peninsula (of Michigan)
Synonyms
Examples of up in a Sentence
Adverb
The land rises up from the valley.
She stood beneath the window and called up to her friend.
Please pick your clothes up off the floor.
We watched the sun come up.
He held up his hand.
We stored the boxes up in the attic.
She stuck a notice up on the wall.
What's going on up there?
He looked up at the stars.
The cards were on the table facing up.
Adjective
The candy is up on the top shelf.
The window is already up.
Your package is up at the front desk.
We were up near the stage.
Are the kids up yet?
We are up every morning at six.
I was up all night studying for the test.
Gas prices are up again.
Preposition
He climbed up the ladder.
She had to walk her bike up the hill.
The bathroom is up the stairs.
Go up the street and turn left.
We walked up the street to meet them.
They live just up the block from us.
I paddled the canoe up the river.
The ship sailed up the coast.
Her office is all the way up the hall on the right.
He paced up and down the hall, waiting for news about his wife's operation.
Verb
climbing fuel prices have forced the delivery company to up its prices
the road constantly ups and downs as it makes its way over the hills
Recent Examples on the WebAbby Montanez, Robb Report, 5 Apr. 2024
Researchers predicted a 42% probability in that area, up from an average of 27% in previous years.
—Cara Tabachnick, CBS News, 4 Apr. 2024
Jobs in the private education, health and professional and business services areas were up in February over January.
—David Lightman, Sacramento Bee, 4 Apr. 2024
That is on display this week at Doral, where hotel occupancy is way up.
—Eric Lipton, New York Times, 4 Apr. 2024
First up is Pink in the Pool, a kid-centric event at the Long Bridge Aquatics Center with story time, snacks and an origami class (9 a.m. to noon).
—Chris Kelly, Washington Post, 4 Apr. 2024
With their time limit soon approaching, the administration has not said what will happen to those individuals’ immigration status once their time limit is up.
—Michael Wilner, Miami Herald, 4 Apr. 2024
The number of marriages in Japan declined by nearly 6% in 2023 from the previous year – dipping below 500,000 for the first time in 90 years, while divorces were up by 2.6% last year, according to official figures.
—Chris Lau, CNN, 4 Apr. 2024
Next up: The winner advances to the Sweet 16 on Thursday in Boston.
—Mark Zeigler, San Diego Union-Tribune, 24 Mar. 2024
Borys Kit, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Mar. 2024
Republicans control the floor schedule, committee hearing topics and the individual pieces of legislation that secure votes on the House floor, which reduces the chances of Wild's bill getting an up or down vote before the end of this Congress next January.
—Scott MacFarlane, CBS News, 20 Mar. 2024
Adjust the mode and settings with the touch of a fingertip, and raise or lower the temperature manually using the up or down buttons.
—Barbara Bellesi Zito, Better Homes & Gardens, 16 Feb. 2024
Again, the effect was strongest when the positive words coincided with the up phase of slow oscillations.
—Ingrid Wickelgren, Scientific American, 20 Feb. 2024
Following clarifying guidance issued by the Wisconsin Elections Commission, the Milwaukee clerk issued an up
The clerks’s guidance was in reference to requesting absentee ballots and photo IDs.
—Journal Sentinel, 26 Jan. 2024
The difference between how volatile the S&P 500 is on up days versus down days is the widest it's been in about 20 years, wrote Stuart Kaiser, head of U.S. equity trading strategy at Citi, in a note to clients this week.
—Gunjan Banerji, WSJ, 21 Nov. 2023
Before contact with the host cell, the spike shifts from a down to an up conformation, allowing binding and enabling infection of the cell.
—William A. Haseltine, Forbes, 18 Apr. 2023
Note the up move in rates on Friday (May 5) (gold) after the release of the payroll report vs. the Wednesday (May 3) (gray) levels.
—Robert Barone, Forbes, 6 May 2023
John Cherwa, Los Angeles Times, 7 Apr. 2024
Hold your arm out straight, directly in front of you, and put a finger up in the air.
—Stefanie Waldek, Travel + Leisure, 7 Apr. 2024
Courtesy of Samuel Velasco/Quanta Magazine The third factor is the probability of a lifeless planet producing the observed signal—an equally serious challenge, researchers now realize, that’s tangled up in the problem of unconceived abiotic alternatives.
—Elise Cutts, WIRED, 7 Apr. 2024
While FireHouse did not release an album of new music following 2003’s Prime Time, the band remained active up through Snare’s surgery.
—Daniel Kreps, Rolling Stone, 7 Apr. 2024
Biden won the district in 2020 and former President Barack Obama picked it up in 2008.
—Karissa Waddick, USA TODAY, 7 Apr. 2024
These best-selling cloud slide sandals are also marked down this weekend, and hundreds of shoppers are already scooping them up this month.
—Clara McMahon, Peoplemag, 7 Apr. 2024
The Department of Education has been engaged in recent months in public listening sessions with stakeholders -- a move considered best practice and a way to firm up justification and standing for new regulations.
—Maryalice Parks, ABC News, 6 Apr. 2024
Pandemic-era stimulus helped push up inflation and, accordingly, interest rates.
—Ryan Hogg, Fortune Europe, 26 Mar. 2024
Ben Stupples, Fortune Europe, 9 Apr. 2024
The Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce is upping its game for this year’s Spring Wine Walk with a VIP Experience that will give 200 ticketholders a sneak peek at a new business opening at an old downtown venue.
—Laura Ness, The Mercury News, 7 Apr. 2024
Venus’ entrance into Aries ups your networking game.
—USA TODAY, 5 Apr. 2024
Vivo’s Snapdragon Power Speaking of chips in foldable smartphones, Chinese manufacturer Vivo has upped the performance game with the first Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 equipped foldable.
—Ewan Spence, Forbes, 29 Mar. 2024
On Wednesday, Amazon upped its stake in Anthropic by $2.75 billion.
—Laura Bratton, Quartz, 28 Mar. 2024
The flowing, relaxed fit will never leave me feeling restricted after long hours of sitting, however, the sleek and flattering fit of this piece means that it can be easily dressed up or down, upping its value in my suitcase.
—Merrell Readman, Travel + Leisure, 15 Mar. 2024
The addition of new sports in Tokyo’s summer Olympics in 2021, including surfing, skateboarding, and sport climbing, only upped the intrigue.
—Stephanie Vermillion, Vogue, 14 Mar. 2024
Lee acknowledged other large language models like Anthropic’s latest generative pre-trained transformer Claude 3 were extremely promising (Amazon just upped its investment in the company by another $2.75 billion on Wednesday).
—Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune Asia, 28 Mar. 2024
Adverb
Contracts signed for Manhattan properties priced above $20 million were up a whopping 140 percent year-over-year in Q1, according to a new report from Compass.
—Abby Montanez, Robb Report, 5 Apr. 2024
Researchers predicted a 42% probability in that area, up from an average of 27% in previous years.
—Cara Tabachnick, CBS News, 4 Apr. 2024
Jobs in the private education, health and professional and business services areas were up in February over January.
—David Lightman, Sacramento Bee, 4 Apr. 2024
That is on display this week at Doral, where hotel occupancy is way up.
—Eric Lipton, New York Times, 4 Apr. 2024
First up is Pink in the Pool, a kid-centric event at the Long Bridge Aquatics Center with story time, snacks and an origami class (9 a.m. to noon).
—Chris Kelly, Washington Post, 4 Apr. 2024
With their time limit soon approaching, the administration has not said what will happen to those individuals’ immigration status once their time limit is up.
—Michael Wilner, Miami Herald, 4 Apr. 2024
The number of marriages in Japan declined by nearly 6% in 2023 from the previous year – dipping below 500,000 for the first time in 90 years, while divorces were up by 2.6% last year, according to official figures.
—Chris Lau, CNN, 4 Apr. 2024
Next up: The winner advances to the Sweet 16 on Thursday in Boston.
—Mark Zeigler, San Diego Union-Tribune, 24 Mar. 2024
Adjective
Minor Threats 2, a straight up sequel to the first volume, begins in April.
—Borys Kit, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Mar. 2024
Republicans control the floor schedule, committee hearing topics and the individual pieces of legislation that secure votes on the House floor, which reduces the chances of Wild's bill getting an up or down vote before the end of this Congress next January.
—Scott MacFarlane, CBS News, 20 Mar. 2024
Adjust the mode and settings with the touch of a fingertip, and raise or lower the temperature manually using the up or down buttons.
—Barbara Bellesi Zito, Better Homes & Gardens, 16 Feb. 2024
Again, the effect was strongest when the positive words coincided with the up phase of slow oscillations.
—Ingrid Wickelgren, Scientific American, 20 Feb. 2024
Following clarifying guidance issued by the Wisconsin Elections Commission, the Milwaukee clerk issued an up
The clerks’s guidance was in reference to requesting absentee ballots and photo IDs.
—Journal Sentinel, 26 Jan. 2024
The difference between how volatile the S&P 500 is on up days versus down days is the widest it's been in about 20 years, wrote Stuart Kaiser, head of U.S. equity trading strategy at Citi, in a note to clients this week.
—Gunjan Banerji, WSJ, 21 Nov. 2023
Before contact with the host cell, the spike shifts from a down to an up conformation, allowing binding and enabling infection of the cell.
—William A. Haseltine, Forbes, 18 Apr. 2023
Note the up move in rates on Friday (May 5) (gold) after the release of the payroll report vs. the Wednesday (May 3) (gray) levels.
—Robert Barone, Forbes, 6 May 2023
Preposition
The field for the Kentucky Derby firmed up on Saturday on the last day of major prep races and, despite some doubts, California will have a horse in the race.
—John Cherwa, Los Angeles Times, 7 Apr. 2024
Hold your arm out straight, directly in front of you, and put a finger up in the air.
—Stefanie Waldek, Travel + Leisure, 7 Apr. 2024
Courtesy of Samuel Velasco/Quanta Magazine The third factor is the probability of a lifeless planet producing the observed signal—an equally serious challenge, researchers now realize, that’s tangled up in the problem of unconceived abiotic alternatives.
—Elise Cutts, WIRED, 7 Apr. 2024
While FireHouse did not release an album of new music following 2003’s Prime Time, the band remained active up through Snare’s surgery.
—Daniel Kreps, Rolling Stone, 7 Apr. 2024
Biden won the district in 2020 and former President Barack Obama picked it up in 2008.
—Karissa Waddick, USA TODAY, 7 Apr. 2024
These best-selling cloud slide sandals are also marked down this weekend, and hundreds of shoppers are already scooping them up this month.
—Clara McMahon, Peoplemag, 7 Apr. 2024
The Department of Education has been engaged in recent months in public listening sessions with stakeholders -- a move considered best practice and a way to firm up justification and standing for new regulations.
—Maryalice Parks, ABC News, 6 Apr. 2024
Pandemic-era stimulus helped push up inflation and, accordingly, interest rates.
—Ryan Hogg, Fortune Europe, 26 Mar. 2024
Verb
After founding Virgin Money in 1995, Branson upped his bet in 2011 by leading a £747 million deal to buy UK lender Northern Rock from the British government following the bank’s collapse in the early stages of the global financial crisis.
—Ben Stupples, Fortune Europe, 9 Apr. 2024
The Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce is upping its game for this year’s Spring Wine Walk with a VIP Experience that will give 200 ticketholders a sneak peek at a new business opening at an old downtown venue.
—Laura Ness, The Mercury News, 7 Apr. 2024
Venus’ entrance into Aries ups your networking game.
—USA TODAY, 5 Apr. 2024
Vivo’s Snapdragon Power Speaking of chips in foldable smartphones, Chinese manufacturer Vivo has upped the performance game with the first Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 equipped foldable.
—Ewan Spence, Forbes, 29 Mar. 2024
On Wednesday, Amazon upped its stake in Anthropic by $2.75 billion.
—Laura Bratton, Quartz, 28 Mar. 2024
The flowing, relaxed fit will never leave me feeling restricted after long hours of sitting, however, the sleek and flattering fit of this piece means that it can be easily dressed up or down, upping its value in my suitcase.
—Merrell Readman, Travel + Leisure, 15 Mar. 2024
The addition of new sports in Tokyo’s summer Olympics in 2021, including surfing, skateboarding, and sport climbing, only upped the intrigue.
—Stephanie Vermillion, Vogue, 14 Mar. 2024
Lee acknowledged other large language models like Anthropic’s latest generative pre-trained transformer Claude 3 were extremely promising (Amazon just upped its investment in the company by another $2.75 billion on Wednesday).
—Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune Asia, 28 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'up.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Adverb
partly from Middle English up upward, from Old English ūp; partly from Middle English uppe on high, from Old English; both akin to Old High German ūf up and probably to Latin sub under, Greek hypo under, hyper over — more at over
First Known Use
Adverb
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a(1)
Adjective
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
Preposition
1509, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
Noun
1536, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Verb
1643, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1a
Time Traveler
The first known use of up was
before the 12th century
Dictionary Entries Near up
Cite this Entry
“Up.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/up. Accessed 16 Apr. 2024.
Copy Citation
Kids Definition
up
1 of 5 adverb1
a
: in or to a higher position or level
especially
: away from the center of the earth
held up my hand
b
: from beneath a surface (as ground or water)
pulling up weeds
c
: from below the horizon
watched the moon come up
d
: in or into an upright position
stand up
e
: out of bed
stayed up late
2
: with greater force
speak up
3
a
: in or into a better or more advanced state
worked our way up in the world
b
: at an end
our time was up
c
: in or into a state of greater activity
stir up a fire
d
: to or at a greater rate, speed, or amount
prices went up
4
a
: into existence, evidence, or knowledge
the missing ring turned up
b
: into consideration
brought the matter up
5
: into possession or control
gave himself up
6
: entirely, completely
eat it up
the house burned up
7
: in or into storage
lay up supplies
put our boat up for the winter
8
: so as to arrive or approach
came up the drive
9
: in or into parts
tear up paper
10
: to a stop
pull up
drew up at the curb
11
: for each side
score was 15 up
up
2 of 5 adjective1
a
: risen above the horizon or ground
the sun was up
b
: being out of bed
c
: higher than usual
the river is up
prices are up
d
: raised so as to be open : lifted
windows are up
e
: put together : built
the house is up
f
: grown above a surface
the corn is up
g
: moving or going upward
the up escalator
2
a
: being on one's feet and busy
was eager to be up and doing
b
: well prepared
the team was up for the game
c
: going on : taking place
find out what is up
3
: well informed
always up on the news
4
: being ahead of an opponent
was three games up in the series
5
a
: presented for or under consideration
up for reelection
b
: charged before a court
was up for robbery
c
: being the one whose turn it is
you're up next
up
3 of 5 preposition(ˌ)əp,
ˈəp
1
: to, toward, or at a higher point of
up the hill
2
a
: toward the beginning of
going up the river
b
: toward the northern or upper end or part of
sailed up the coast
3
: along the course of
walking up the street
up
4 of 5 nounˈəp
1
: an upward course or slope
2
: a period or state of success
had had my ups and downs
Medical Definition
UP
abbreviation
More from Merriam-Webster on up
Nglish: Translation of up for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of up for Arabic Speakers
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