Also up-hill. [UP prep.2 Cf. next.]
A. sb. 1. An ascent; a high or steep rise.
1548. Udall, Erasm. Par. Luke iii. 28 b. That countrey is full of vphilles and downhilles, & almost no parte of it euen, or plain chaumpian ground.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 54. [The traveller has] no euen way, but continually high vphils and steepe down-hils til he commeth to Tarare.
1631. A. Townshend, Albion’s Triumph, B. There is no vp-hill in the skyes; Clouds stay not feathered feete.
1671. trans. Frejus’ Voy. Mauritania, 54. Built on very high ground, but … we come insensibly to the Town, without perceiving any up-hill.
1883. C. Howard, Roads Eng. & Wales (ed. 3), 81. From here is a long stiff uphill along the coast.
† 2. Gaming. (See quots.) Obs.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Uphils, high Dice.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulgar T., Uphills, false dice that run high.
1824. Hist. Gaming, 41. To the landlord … he taught the art of … cutting the broads right, and throwing uphills.
B. adj. 1. Situated on high ground; elevated.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage, India (1614), 481. Ouer Balaguate, or the vp-hill Countrey (for Bala in the Persian Language signifieth the toppe, and Guate a Hill).
1701. O. Heywood, Diaries, etc. (1885), IV. 176. My last and best journey will be to the up-hill city.
a. 1814. Gonzanga, III., in New Brit. Theatre, III. 121. My passage to the up-hill seat of power.
1853. Public School Matches, 12. Whatever you do, throw up full from the uphill side.
b. Grown on high ground.
1892. Daily News, 7 Dec., 6/1. It was a well-known fact that up-hill hay was much the best.
2. Leading or directed towards higher ground; going upwards, esp. steeply.
1622. Bacon, Hen. VII., Ep. Ded. And it is with Times, as it is with Wayes. Some are more Up-hill and Down-hill, and some are more Flat and Plaine.
1684. Bunyan, Pilgr., II. 65. They love not to take Pains, up-hill way is unpleasant to them.
1728. Young, Love Fame, V. 99. Yet, as immortal, in our up-hill chace We press coy fortune with unslacken’d pace.
c. 1854. Faber, Hymn, ‘The Light must win,’ vi. The Church, the Sacraments, the Faith, Their uphill journey take.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 234. But before virtue the gods have set toil, and a tedious and uphill road.
1891. T. Hardy, Tess, xxvii. An up-hill and down-dale ride of twenty-odd miles.
b. Presenting difficulties; carried on against difficulties or opposition; arduous, hard.
Used esp. with battle, fight, game, task, work.
1622. [see prec.].
1659. Trevor, in Burton’s Diary (1828), IV. 348. I move not to bring it into question whether it be up-hill or down-hill.
1741. Ld. Lyttelton, Athenæum, 23 Feb. (1895), 251/3. It was an uphill piece of work considering the difficulties he lies under.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1768), IV. 149. What an up-hill labour!
1849. Cobden, Speeches, 8. We had an up-hill battle, but we succeeded.
1850. J. H. Newman, Diffic. Anglic., V. 107. This misfortune is nothing new; we always reckoned on an uphill game.
a. 1860. Alb. Smith, Med. Student (1861), 119. The up-hill struggles … of his laborious future career.
1886. T. Frost, Remin. Country Journalist, xxi. (1888), 245. ‘It was up hill work to establish it [sc. a newspaper],’ he told me.
c. Contending against difficulties. rare.
1821. Hazlitt, Table-t., Ser. I. Indian Jugglers. He was the best up-hill player in the world.
1885. Tennyson, Ancient Sage, 279. Lay thine uphill shoulder to the wheel, And climb the Mount of Blessing.
3. Uphill and downhill, alternately cheerful and depressed.
1681. R. Cromwell, Lett., in Eng. Hist. Rev. (1898), 96. I hope shee will find … a better account of the goodness of the Lord then what we meet with by your uphill and downhill letters.
