adv., a. and sb. Also 5 wpwr-, wppwrmwste, 6 Anglo-Ir. uppermuste; 5 wpwr-, 6 vp(p)ermoste (6 vppermooste), 5–7 vper-, 6–7 vppermost. [f. as prec. + -MOST.]
A. adv. 1. In or to the highest, upmost, or most elevated position or place.
1481. Cely Papers (Camden), 74. A packe lyes wpwrmwste apon Dawlttons behynde the maste. Ibid., 75. Thay ly behynde the maste wpwrmoste.
1617. J. Taylor (Water P.), Observ. & Trav. fr. London to Hamburgh, E 1 b. A good featherbed vndermost,… and another featherbed vppermost.
1622. Sir R. Hawkins, Observ. Voy. S. Sea, 3. With a storme … shee was turned topse-turvie, her Kele vppermost.
1668. Bp. Hopkins, Serm., Vanity (1685), 76. His hand turns all things here about like so many wheels;… the same part is now uppermost, and anon lowermost.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 281, ¶ 11. I … shall therefore only take Notice of what lay first and uppermost.
1747. Wesley, Prim. Physick (1762), 55. Lie with that Ear uppermost.
1814. Scott, Diary, 7 Aug., in Lockhart. This man being uppermost on the cord,… called out to his brother who was next to him.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 263. Care must be taken that the upper end of the cutting … be kept uppermost.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xvi. 118. In making this effort the spike of my axe turned uppermost.
fig. 1866. G. Macdonald, Ann. Q. Neighb., vii. (1878), 117. If the wine hadn’t got uppermost.
b. In the first or foremost place in respect of precedence, station, rank, or the like.
1526. Tindale, Matt. xxiii. 6. They … love to sytt vppermooste at feastes.
1530. Palsgr., 713/2. I set hyest, or upper moste in a companye.
15[?]. Bk. Precedence, i. 14. All Dukes daughters shall goe all-one with a nother, soe that alwayes the Eldest Dukes Daughter go vpermost.
1628. [see C. 1 b].
1850. J. F. Cooper, Ways of Hour, I. 317. It is the people to-day;… some prince to-morrow; and by the end of the week we may have … a Robespierre uppermost.
c. fig. In the chief place or predominancy.
1805. Wordsw., Prelude, IX. 389. We … saw … generous love … Uppermost in the midst of fiercest strife.
1850. Robertson, Serm., Ser. III. (1857), 125. A mourning in which self is ever uppermost.
1885. ‘M. Rutherford,’ Deliv., i. 11. Every now and then, when the subject was uppermost.
2. Foremost in, most prominently in or into the mind, thoughts, conversation, etc.
In frequent use from c. 1830.
1693. Humours Town, 54. Perpetual Chat on whatever comes uppermost.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, II. (Globe), 316. It was uppermost in all my Thoughts.
1723. Pres. St. Russia, II. 151. It was always my Way to say what came uppermost.
1802–12. Bentham, Ration. Judic. Evid., Wks. 1843, VII. 172. Any one word that comes uppermost is sufficient.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xli. Ever since she had left them she had not ceased to keep them uppermost in her thoughts.
1860. Trollope, Framley Parsonage, xxvi. To speak out what came uppermost to her tongue.
B. adj. 1. Occupying the highest position or place; loftiest, topmost, highest in place; furthest up (on a river, etc.).
c. 1500. Melusine, lix. 358. He yede vp to the vpermost stage of the donjon.
1526. Tindale, Luke xi. 43. Ye love the vppermost seates in the sinagoges.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 226 b. One of the officers demaunded his vpper garment for his fee, meanyng his goune, and he [sc. Sir Thomas More] … tooke him his cappe, saiyng it was the vppermoste garment that he had.
1623. Bingham, Xenophon, 133. Xenophon … encamped in the vppermost village neere the mountaines.
1657. Hobbes, Absurd. Geom., 3. Perhaps you mean that the uppermost quantitie 0 + 1 is equal to the uppermost quantity 1.
1702. Post Man, 8–11 Aug., 2/1. Inquire at the uppermost House … in the said Buildings.
1764. Museum Rust., IV. 19. I preserve only two of the new shoots, the uppermost and its opposite.
1844. Kinglake, Eöthen, x. The golden juice ascended from … the cellar to the uppermost brains of the friars.
1886. J. A. Brown, in Q. Jrnl. Geol. Soc., May, 196. There had been a manufactory of Palæolithic implements on this uppermost floor.
1896. A. Sterry, Tale Thames (1903), 43/1. One the most attractive portions of what may be called the Uppermost Thames.
b. Outermost; most external.
a. 1548. [implied in quot. under 1 above].
1560. First Bk. Discipl. (1621), 48. The uppermost claith, corps-present; clerk maile, the Pasche-offering.
1567. Maplet, Gr. Forest, 69. The Adder … casteth off yearely his uppermost skin or coate.
1861. J. R. Greene, Man. Anim. Kingd., Cœlent., 103. An expanded bulb, above which are disposed … the various appendages … Of these the hydrocysts are uppermost, or external.
† 2. Maximum, utmost. Obs.–1
1579. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 430. If any [person] … steallinge of any … wares, do … restore the thing or thinges so taken or the uppermuste vallue thereof.
3. Highest in respect of rank, importance, precedence, etc.; chiefest, first.
1680. Walton, in Aubrey, Lives (1898), II. 15. He was in … the vpermost fforme in Westminster scole.
1699. Bentley, Phal., 188. The Thought [was] so very obvious and uppermost.
1780. Warner in Jesse, Selwyn & Contemp. (1844), IV. 398. In the Westminster [election] struggle Rodney is to-day got uppermost.
1876. Miss Yonge, Womankind, xii. This entire seclusion from all means of reaching the poor … is seldom found in the uppermost classes.
1895. Manch. Exam., 6 April, 5/2. The weather is, in view of the approaching holiday, the uppermost subject of concern.
b. Having the chief power, control, or authority; predominant, supreme; most influential.
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., I. 887. In the time of the rebellion he sided with those that were uppermost.
1693. Humours Town, 42. The Violence of those that are uppermost.
1732. Berkeley, Alciphr., II. § 21. Where heavy heads are lowest, and men of genius uppermost.
1818. Scott, Br. Lamm., xxvii. Uniform adherents to the party who are uppermost.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xiv. III. 445. The politician whose practice was always to be on the side which was uppermost.
C. sb. † 1. The highest part or portion. Obs.
1484. Caxton, Fables of Æsop, V. xiii. Yf an Egle were at the vppermost of the heuen.
1613–39. I. Jones, in Leoni Palladio’s Archit. (1742), II. 49. The uppermost of the highest Cornice, is of large Tyles.
1646. J. Gregory, Notes & Observ., 11. For so they call Τὰ μετέωρα τῶν οἰκημάτων, the uppermosts of their Houses.
b. The highest place or position.
1628. R. H., J. Owen’s Epigr., II. liv. 11. Let me set alwayes vppermost at boord, The vppermost in bed I’le you affoord.
† 2. That which is highest, most predominant, etc. Obs.
1687. Good Advice, 60. It is certain that two predominant Religions, would be two Uppermosts at once.
a. 1753. Bp. Berkeley, in Fraser, Life (1871), 477. Wt judgement would he make of uppermost and lowermost who had always seen through an inverting glass?
† 3. The upper hand; superiority or dominion.
1718. Entertainer, No. 43. 302. If ever they get the Uppermost, after their long Struggles for Superiority.
