uppeak (uppek)

i. To rise in or to a peak. Stan i hurst, Æneid, iii. 209. [Rare.] upper (up'er), a. and n. [ And such a yell was there, Of sudden and portentous birth, As if men fought upon the earth, And fiends in upper air. Scott , Marmion, vi. 25. 2. Superior in rank or dignity: as, the upper house of a legislature; an upper servant. Few of the upper Planters drinke any water: but the better sort are well furnished with Sacke, Aquavitæ, and good English Beere. Quoted in Capt . John Smith's True Travels, II. 258. Betting proper was not so much diffused through all ranks and cla es [in 1845], but was more confined to the upper circles of society. Nineteenth Century , XXVI. 842. To have or get the upper hand. See hand . -To have the upper fortunet, to have the upper hand. You have the upper fortune of him. Beau. and Fl., Honest Man's Fortune, i. 2. To hold the upper handt. Same as to have the upper hand. To keep a stiff upper lip. See lip . - Upper Stood hie upon the gait. Sir William Wallace (Child's Ballads, VI. 238). Bench, in Eng . hist . , the name given to the Court of King's Three years I lived upon a pillar, high Six cubits, and three years on one of twelve. Tennyson, St. Simeon Stylites. (b) Upward so as to get or be on: involving motion toward a higher point. The nihtegale i-h[e]rde this, And hupte [hopped] uppon on blowe ris [branch]. Owl and Nightingale , 1. 1636. And he xal make hym to wryte, and than gon upon a leddere, and settyn the tabyl abovyn Crystes hed. Coventry Mysteries , p. 324. Joel ii. 9. They shall climb up upon the houses. Four nimble gnats the horses were,... Fly Cranion the charioteer Upon the coach-box getting. Drayton , Nymphidia. Lucan vaulted upon Pegasus with all the heat and intrepidity of youth. To lift the woman's fall'n divinity Upon an even pedestal with man. Add is on. Tennyson, Prince , iii. 2. On, in any sense: conveying no notion of height, elevation, rise, or ascent. See on1. Aside from the uses noted in the foregoing definition, upon is strictly synonymous with on, and is preferred in certain cases only for euphonic or metrical reasons. For parallel uses of the two words, see the following quotations. Dere dyn vp - on day, daunsyng on nyztes, Al watz hap vpon heze in halles & chambrez. Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight (E. E. T. S.), 1. 47. Bench during the exile of Charles II. - Upper case. See case2, 6.- Upper coverts, in ornith., the coverts on the upper side of the wings and tail; superior tectrices. See covert, n., 6.- Upper crust, the higher circles of society; the aristocracy; the upper ten. [Slang.] - Upper culmination. See culmination. - Upper house. See housel, -Upper keyboard. See keyboard.-Upper leather. (a) Leather used in making the vamps and quarters of boots and shoes. (6) Vamps and quarters of boots and shoes collectively. Also called simply uppers. Their Tables were so very Neat, and Shin'd with Rubbing, like the Upper Leathers of an Alderman's shoes. Quoted in Ashton's Social Life in Reign of Queen Anne, [Ι. 227. Upper story, a story above the ground floor; the top story; hence, colloquially, the head; the brain. IMG:content-1602.png:[blocks in formation] Harper's Mag., LXXVIII. 568. Upper works ( naut.). Same as dead - works. II. n. 1. The upper part of a shoe or boot, comprising the vamp and quarters. Ladies' straight top button upper with straight toe cap. Ure, Dict., IV. 109. Swyerez [squires] that swyftly swyed on blonkez (horses], 2. pl . Separate cloth gaiters to button above & also fele vpon fote, of fre & of bonde. Alliterative Poems (ed. Morris), ii. 88. The flode with a felle cours flowet on hep is, Rose vppon rockes [i. e., in towering ma es) as any ranke the shoes over the ankle. To be on one's uppers, to be poor or in hard luck: referring to a worn-out cond i. tion of one's shoes. [Slang.]