Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To hold aloft; raise: upheld the banner proudly.
- v. To prevent from falling or sinking; support.
- v. To maintain or affirm against opposition. See Synonyms at support.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To hold up; raise or lift on high; keep raised or elevated; elevate.
- To keep erect; keep from sinking or falling; hence, to support; sustain; maintain; keep up; keep from declining or being lost or ruined: as, to uphold a person, a decision, or a verdict.
- To countenance; give aid to: as, to uphold a lawbreaker.
- To warrant; vouch for.
Wiktionary
- v. To hold up; to lift on high; to elevate.
- v. To keep erect; to support; to sustain; to keep from falling; to maintain.
- v. To support by approval or encouragement.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To hold up; to lift on high; to elevate.
- v. To keep erect; to support; to sustain; to keep from falling; to maintain.
- v. To aid by approval or encouragement; to countenance.
WordNet 3.0
- v. support against an opponent
- v. keep or maintain in unaltered condition; cause to remain or last
- v. stand up for; stick up for; of causes, principles, or ideals
Etymologies
- From Middle English upholden, equivalent to up- + hold. Compare Dutch ophouden ("to stop, cease, hold up"), German aufhalten ("to stop, halt, detain"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Willingly abusing power to break the fundamental laws of the Constitution, a document that our elected officials are SWORN to uphold, is treason.”
“This latest incident in Afghanistan shows just how far the country has to go in resolving their attitudes toward women and free speech, and the democracy we struggle to uphold from the Taliban is scarcely any better at all.”
“WIth the departure of Darth Cheney, America will again uphold the rule of law at home and not the petty rule of an oligarch-tyrant who believed “l’etat c’est moi” was the policy for both 300 million Americans as well as untold countless illegally-detained and - tortured overseas in his gulags. —”
“However, when I became Circleman of Varagog, like my father before me, I gave my word to uphold the will of the Inner Circle.”
“Noa - how can you "uphold" your claim when it is transparently false?”
John Terry’s sacking as England captain tells us something interesting...
“It is also not for us to decide the Charlottesville should "uphold" the Constitution either.”
Council to Consider Anti-PATRIOT Resolution at cvillenews.com
“And in this way, every other minute some actor or actress would approach Dobek, who solemnly promised to "uphold" them all.”
“Now, in a deep recession, all of the sudden he wants to "uphold" the law!”
“Seoul's Dong-a Ilbo newspaper reported that Kim ordered senior officials at the State Security Department in March to "uphold" his youngest son as head of the agency, while doling out foreign-made luxury cars to the officials as gifts.”
“South Korea's Dong-a IIbo newspaper reported on Wednesday that the elder Kim visited the headquarters of the State Security Department in March, along with his 26-year-old son, Kim Jong Un, and told agency leaders to "uphold" his third son as head of the department, South Korea's Dong-a Ilbo newspaper reported citing an unnamed source.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘uphold’.
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JURI - courtroom speak
Legal glossary with special focus on courtroom vocabulary
accused, acquittal, ADA, adjournment, adjudication, affidavit, affirmed, aggravated range, aggravating factors, allegation, alleged, answer and 794 more...
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POL - campaign tokenisms
Positive words and vague promises. THE words and expressions to use when you want to win over the masses or just don't know what to say.
"CAPITAL" stands for the administrative capital...deserve, deserve better, destiny, determination, determine, determine the wil..., dialogue, differentiation, difficult question, disappointments, diverse, diversity and 751 more...
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EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...conferral, stateless, person, voting, right, subsidiarity, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia, Lithuania, Finland, Estonia and 2614 more...
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fifi
verbs Adj Adv noun
indulge, convene, solve, dissolve, prospect, prospective, allege, resolve, accountable, administration, amid, agenda and 407 more...
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Mihoz list
mounting, lawlessness, abduct, captive, vow, solemn, plaintive, uphold, grievance, retaliation, vigilance, clan and 14 more...
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Words of the Day
glabella, chirotony, nook-shotten, crapehanger, filemot, swirlie, egosurf, lexiphanicism, Ruritanian, stichometry, chrononaut, faldstool and 2253 more...
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oneasterism's words
Words that I like, that I don't use often enough, that are new to me, that friends and family have taught me, and so on.
lugubrious, reticent, eschelon, missive, penchant, copious, conspicuous, tranquil, redolent, asinine, inane, dilatory and 625 more...
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Go over
mollify, obstinate, obviate, occlude, onerous, obscure, paragon, pedantic, perfunctory, placate, placid, prodigal and 364 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate, amalgam and 1781 more...
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Words i could use in my book
promotion, preferment, amuse, defence, oppose, rape, argument, protect, attack, sex, intercourse, sexual intercourse and 23 more...
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Verbs
begrudge, delude, guzzle, stave off, accrue, scoff, feign, shun, uphold, oust, smirk, topple and 3 more...
Tweets
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