a. Also Sc. 6 vpmest, 6–9 upmaist. [f. UP adv.2 + -MOST.]
1. = UPPERMOST a. (in various senses).
1560. Bible (Genev.), Isaiah xvii. 6. Two or thre beries are in the top of the vpmoste boughs.
1567. Drant, Horace, Ep., To Rdr. *iv. He that woulde come to the vpmoste top of an highe hill.
1599. T. M[oufet], Silkwormes, 62. That which lies vpmost is of least renowne.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., IX. 391. Sulphure streames, which haue burst forth from the vpmost tops of Ætna. Ibid., 418. Podalia, the vpmost Countrey of Polland.
1664. Evelyn, Kal. Hort., 75. Taking away some of the upmost exhausted earth, and stirring up the rest.
1715. Leoni, Palladio’s Archit. (1721), II. 16. The middle of the upmost Wall ought to be perpendicular with the middle of the nethermost.
1808. Scott, Lett. to Sharpe, 30 Dec., in Lockhart. You have … been upmost in my thoughts for some time past.
1859. Gullick & Timbs, Paint., 163. The upmost flat surface is divided into nine compartments.
1875. Lightfoot, Comm. Col., 411/1. What was the thought upmost in the Apostle’s mind…?
b. absol. or as sb.
1589. Fleming, Virg. Georg., III. 43. Let him skarse set his feet vpon th’ upmost [note The superfie or vppermost part] of the sand.
† 2. Sc. = UMEST a. 1. Obs.
1592. Lyndesay’s Wks., 134–5. The Vicar … will nocht faill to tak ane kow, And vpmaist claith.
1609. Skene, Reg. Maj. Stat. Will., 11. The forestar sall take … his vpmaist claith.
1620. Henry’s Wallace, X. i. 229. Wallace in haste gart take their upmost weed.
