[f. UP v.]
1. The action of catching and marking swans. (See UP v. 1, and cf. SWAN-HOPPING, -UPPING.)
1560–1. in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford (1880), 285. For upping of half game in cowemeade, iiij d. Ibid. (1570–1), 338. For upping of swans, viij s.
1593. Buckhurst, in Kempe, Losely MSS. (1836), 306. That the upping of all those swans … may be upped all in on day wt the upping of the Tems.
1892. Pall Mall G., 2 Aug., 2/1. The operation of ‘upping’ is performed by the Crown and the Companies’ swan-masters together.
attrib. 1572–3. in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford (1880), 350. Chargys aboute the swanes … at the syttynge tyme and uppynge tyme.
1584–5. Order for Swans, His Dinner and Supper free, on the vpping day.
2. The action of getting up; only attrib. in upping-block, -stock, -stone, a horse-block, a mounting-stone.
Also in dial. use with -chock, -steps.
1796. Grose’s Dict. Vulgar T. (ed. 3), *Upping block, steps for mounting a horse.
1826. Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1830), 529. Houses … with large stone upping-blocks against the walls of them.
1883. Trans. Amer. Philol. Soc., 55. Upping-block, ‘a horse-block,’ in common use in West Virginia.
a. 1691. Aubrey, Nat. Hist. Wilts (1847), 26. At the foot of Shotover-hill, near the *upping-stock.
1820. Sporting Mag., VI. 159. An itinerant preacher on the upping-stock at the back of my house.
1856. G. Roberts, Soc. Hist. Eng., 560. Upping stocks and horse blocks were necessary when double horses were in use.
1809. Hazlitt, in The Hazlitts (1911), I. 433. A conception of the ladder which I learned from the *upping stone on the down.
3. dial. The end, issue, or upshot of a matter.
1828–. in Yks. and Lanc. glossaries.
