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Webster 1913 Edition


Uphold

Up-hold′

,
Verb.
T.
1.
To hold up; to lift on high; to elevate.
The mournful train with groans, and hands
upheld
.
Besought his pity.
Dryden.
2.
To keep erect; to support; to sustain; to keep from falling; to maintain.
Honor shall
uphold
the humble in spirit.
Prov. xxix 3.
Faulconbridge,
In spite of spite, alone
upholds
the day.
Shakespeare
3.
To aid by approval or encouragement; to countenance;
as, to
uphold
a person in wrongdoing
.

Webster 1828 Edition


Uphold

UPHOLD

,
Verb.
T.
pret. and pp. upheld. [Upholden is obsolete.]
1.
To lift on high; to elevate.
2.
To support; to sustain; to keep from falling or slipping.
Honor shall uphold the humble in spirit. Prov. 29.
3.
To keep from declension.
4.
To support in any state.
5.
To continue; to maintain.
6.
To keep from being lost.
Faulconbridge, in spite of spite, along upholds the day.
7.
To continue without failing.
8.
To continue in being.

Definition 2024


uphold

uphold

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

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

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