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Definition 2024


up_and

up and

English

Adverb

up and (not comparable)

  1. (colloquial) Abruptly; unexpectedly.
    • 1932, Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road‎, page 168:
      I knowed then why she up and went there, because Ada told me.
    • 1990, Archie Weller, “Johnny Blue”, in Going home: stories‎, page 41:
      When he saw me hand and face, he up and goes for the head's office before I can say 'struth' and, by the time I can get after him, it's too late.
    • 2001, Charles G. Roland, Long night's journey into day: prisoners of war in Hong Kong and Japan, 1941 ...‎, page 193:
      a friend of mine who, within ten days, said 'I've had enough of this' and he just up and died. It seemed he wished himself to die.

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