Now rare. Also 4 uppurest, 4–5 uppereste, 5 -ist; 6 upperst. [A superlative formed on UPPER a. Cf. MDu. upperst (Du. and Flem. opperst), LG. upperst, üpperst, Sw. and older Da. ypperst, Norw. ypparst, yppast best, choicest.] Most high in situation, position, or rank; uppermost, highest, loftiest; † outermost.
In modern use rare for uppermost.
13[?]. K. Alis., 7068 (MS. Linc.). Þeose seresys … Vppurest folk buþ of ynde.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., I. pr. i. 2 (Camb. MS.). By whiche degrees men myhten clymbyn fro the nethereste lettre to the vppereste.
1387–8. T. Usk, Test. Love, I. x. (Skeat), l. 32. We men, that … holden the upperest degree, under god, of benigne thinges.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 62 b/1. Moyses … made hym upperist bysshop for his fader Aaron. Ibid., 76 b/1. She wente up in the upperist cubicle of the hows.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 2 b. His grace ware in his vpperst apparell, a robe of Crimosyn Veluet.
1874. M. Collins, Frances, III. 212. An American of the very upperest five hundred.
1880. W. Morris, in Mackail, Life (1899), II. 15. Above the Round House, on what might be called the upperest Thames.
b. absol. The uppermost or highest point.
1484. Caxton, Fables of Æsop, III. iii. He that is atte vpperest of the whele of fortune, may wel falle doune.
