[f. UP adv.1 Cf. OE. uppian (once), to mount up, rise. With senses 3 and 4 cf. the uses placed under UP adv.1 29.]
I. trans. 1. To drive up and catch (swans, etc.) so as to provide with the mark of ownership. Cf. UPPING vbl. sb.2 1. ? Obs.
1560–1. in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford (1880), 285. For uppyng the ground byrde in porte meade.
1584–5. Order for Swans, The Swan-heard … shall vp no Swan nor make any sale of them, without the Maister of the Swannes … be present.
1602–3. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), III. 595. Item ye swanherd for vpping swans, ijs.
† b. To carry out, perform (the practice of ‘upping’).
1593. [see UPPING vbl. sb.2 1].
† 2. To make up, form, or compose of something.
a. 1658. Cleveland, London Lady, 102. An Animal together blow’d and made, And up’d of all the shreds of every Trade.
3. To raise up (a weapon, etc.), esp. to or upon the shoulder. Cf. sense 7 b.
1885. Rider Haggard, K. Solomon’s Mines, iv. Good … upped gun, and let drive at … a young cow.
1887. G. R. Sims, Mary Jane’s Mem., 104. She ups her stick and begins to belabour him across the shoulders.
4. Naut. a. (See sense 7 c.) b. To heave or haul up.
1890. Clark Russell, Marriage at Sea, vii. There’s no English port for her unless she ups hellum and tries back’ards again.
1904. Kipling, Traffics & Discov., 133. After us’ve upped trawl, us’ll be glad of a tow.
II. intr. 5. To rise to one’s feet; to get up from a sitting or recumbent posture; to arise; to rise from bed. Also in fig. context.
1643. Quarles, Embl., II. xiv. 2. The true-bred Gamester ups a fresh, and then, Falls to ’t agen.
1647. Bp. Corbet, Poems (1807), 226. Nor can these figures in thy rest endeere, As not to up when chanticleere Speaks the last watch.
1825. Jennings, Observ. Dial. W. Eng., 109. Jerry Nutty … upp’d avaur tha lork.
1913. M. Roberts, Salt of Sea, vi. 177. The bloke nods and ups on ’is feet.
1915. C. H. Sorley, Lett., 6 March (1919), 255. I was going through a musketry course at Hythe (where the victories come from), when suddenly the division ups and marches to Aldershot.
b. colloq. and dial. To start up, come forward, begin abruptly or boldly, to say or do something. Usu. followed by and. Cf. UP adv.1 31.
(a) 1831. Lover, Leg., 82. The bishop ups and he tells him that he must mend his manners.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., IV. xiii. Then we both of us ups and says, that minute, ‘Prove so!’
1867–. in general dialect use (Eng. Dial. Dict.).
1879. R. Browning, Ned Bratts, 125. She ups with such a face, Heart sunk inside me: ‘Well, pad on my prate-apace!’
(b) 1883. Stevenson, Treas. Isl., xxix. And you have the Davy Jones’s insolence to up and stand for cap’n over me!
1884. ‘Mark Twain,’ Huck. Finn, xxv. All of a sudden the doctor ups and turns on them. He says: [etc.].
1898. ‘H. S. Merriman,’ Roden’s Corner, xxvii. A gesture that served … to … invite the Frenchman to up and smite him.
6. To move upwards; to rise or ascend. Also with it.
1737. Ozell, Rabelais, II. 103. A Chimney-sweeper ups and downs it in a Chimney, with his long Broom.
c. 1810. Coleridge, Lit. Rem. (1838), III. 328. He founders backward and forward, now upping and now downing.
1825. Lady Granville, Lett. (1894), I. 360. What an odd thing life is, and how it ups and downs.
7. To up with: a. To come out with (a story, etc.). rare–1. Cf. OUT v. 4. b.
1715. M. Davies, Athen. Brit., I. 31. Sir Thomas up’s with a Story of the Curs baiting of the Butcher’s Dog.
b. colloq. To raise (the arm, etc.); to elevate; to lift or pick up.
1760. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), I. 63. She ups with her brawny arm.
1825. T. Hook, Sayings, Ser. II. II. 356. Mrs. South … ‘upped with the turbot and popped it into the dish.’
1851. H. Newland, The Erne, 37. Had he upped with his pilgrim-staff, and broken the man’s heretical head.
1887. G. R. Sims, Mary Jane’s Mem., 30. He ups with the spade in a minute.
c. Naut. To place (the helm or tiller) so as to carry the rudder to leeward.
1860. W. H. Russell, Diary India, I. 95. And there … stand the four Chinese helmsmen,… upping with the helm and downing with it.
