Chiefly Sc. [UP- 2.]
1. Sc. Way up, ascent. rare.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, VI. 167. The vpcom wes then Dittit with slayn hors and men.
1866. Gregor, Banffshire Gloss., 204.
2. Sc. Outward appearance (of a person). ? Obs.
Jamieson (1808), suggests that the idea is ‘probably borrowed from the first appearance of the … blade after sowing.’
a. 1630[?]. D. Hume, Hist. Ho. Douglas (1644), 235. A Courtier … cast in a word of doubting and disparaging: It is true, said he, if all be good that is up-come; meaning if his action and valour were answerable to his personage and body.
1819. [A. Balfour], Campbell, I. 27. I hae nae doubt o’ his abilities, for he promises fair according to his upcome.
[1819. Scott, Leg. Montrose, iv. ‘A stout fellow,’ replied Anderson, ‘if all be good that is upcome.’ Ibid. (1823), Quentin D., vii. You should be a right man-at-arms, if all be good that is upcome.]
3. Sc. The final or decisive point.
1824. Scott, Redgauntlet, let. iii. My portrait is … scandalously caricatured. I fail or quail in spirit at the upcome!
4. The result, yield, or produce.
c. 1874. C. Patmore, in Champneys, Mem. (1900), I. 250. The upcome of a year can be reaped in one fine day.
1887. Sat. Rev., 11 June, 821/1. The positive … upcome of this last of Mr. Gladstone’s perambulations.
