English

Verb

uphold ‎(third-person singular simple present upholds, present participle upholding, simple past upheld, past participle upheld or (archaic) upholden)

1. To hold up; to lift on high; to elevate.
   • 1899, John Dryden, Geoffrey Chaucer, Percival Chubb, Dryden's Palamon and Arcite, page 5:

     The mournful train/ Echoed her grief, [...]/ With groans, and hands upheld, to move his mind, /Besought his pity to their helpless kind

2. To keep erect; to support; to sustain; to keep from falling; to maintain.
   • 1769, The King James Bible, Proverbs 29:23:

     A man's pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.

   • 1623, William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King John, Act V, Scene iv:

     That misbegotten devil, Falconbridge, /In spite of spite, alone upholds the day.

   • 1872, James De Mille, The Cryptogram, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2009:

     Uttering such broken ejaculations Mrs. Hart burst into a passion of tears, and only Lord Chetwynde's strong arms prevented her from falling. / He upheld her.

3. To support by approval or encouragement.
   • 1748. David Hume. Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral. London: Oxford University Press, 1973. § 18:

     but there was still a connexion upheld among the different ideas, which succeeded each other.

Derived terms

• upholdatory (rare, obsolete, nonce word)

Translations

References

• uphold in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• Notes:

1. ↑ Oxford-Paravia Concise - Dizionario Inglese-Italiano e Italiano-Inglese. Edited by Maria Cristina Bareggi. Torino: Paravia, 2003 (in collaboration with Oxford University Press). ISBN 8839551107. Online version here

Anagrams

• hold up, hold-up, holdup