upright

From Middle English upright, uppryght, upriht, from Old English upriht, uppriht (“upright; erect”), from Proto-Germanic *upprehtaz, equivalent to up- +‎ right. Cognate with Saterland Frisian apgjucht (“upright”), West Frisian oprjocht (“upright”), Dutch oprecht (“upright”), German Low German uprecht (“upright”), German aufrecht (“upright”), Swedish upprätt (“upright”), Icelandic upprétt (“upright”).

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /ˈʌpɹaɪt/

upright (comparative more upright, superlative most upright)

1. Vertical; erect.

   I was standing upright, waiting for my orders.

   • 1608, William Shakespeare, The merry Deuill of Edmonton, introduction, lines 1–4

     Fab[ell]: What meanes the tolling of this fatall chime, // O what a trembling horror ſtrikes my hart! // My ſtiffned haire ſtands vpright on my head, // As doe the briſtles of a porcupine.

   • 1782, Fanny Burney, Cecilia; or, Memoirs of an Heiress, volume V, Book X, chapter X: “A Termination”, page 372

     Supported by pillows, ſhe ſat almoſt upright.

   • 2006, Neil A. Campbell, Biology: concepts & connections, page 404:

     Upright posture evolved well before an enlarged brain in hominids.

2. Greater in height than breadth.
3. (figuratively) Of good morals; practicing ethical values.
   • 1611, King James Version, Job 1:1:

     There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.

4. (of a golf club) Having the head approximately at a right angle with the shaft.

• (vertical, erect): surrect (obsolete, rare)

• upright bass, upright bassist

upright (comparative more upright, superlative most upright)

1. in or into an upright position

upright (plural uprights)

1. Any vertical part of a structure, especially one of the goal posts in sports.
   • 2011 January 5, Mark Ashenden, “Wolverhampton 1 - 0 Chelsea”, in BBC‎:

     Chelsea improved, with Salomon Kalou denied by goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey and Didier Drogba hitting the upright.

2. A word clued by the successive initial, middle, or final letters of the cross-lights in a double acrostic or triple acrostic.
3. (informal) An upright piano.
4. Short for upright vacuum cleaner.

• (word clued by successive letters): double acrostic, triple acrostic

• upright piano

upright (third-person singular simple present uprights, present participle uprighting, simple past and past participle uprighted)

1. (transitive) To set upright or stand back up (something that has fallen).