Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Directed or thrown upward.
  • noun Something cast upward.
  • noun A ventilating shaft, as in a mine.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To cast or throw up.
  • Cast up: a term used in bowling.
  • Thrown or turned upward; directed up: as, upcast eyes.
  • noun The act of casting or hurling upward, or the state of being cast upward; also, that which is cast upward; an upthrow.
  • noun In bowling, a cast; a throw.
  • noun In mining, the shaft or passage of any kind through which the air is taken out of a mine; the out-take: the opposite of downcast (which see) and downtake.
  • noun An upward current of air passing through a shaft or the like.
  • noun The state of being overturned; an upset.
  • noun A taunt; a reproach.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Bowling) A cast; a throw.
  • noun (Mining.) The ventilating shaft of a mine out of which the air passes after having circulated through the mine; -- distinguished from the downcast. Called also upcast pit, and upcast shaft.
  • noun Scot. An upset, as from a carriage.
  • noun Scot. A taunt; a reproach.
  • transitive verb obsolete To cast or throw up; to turn upward.
  • transitive verb Scot. To taunt; to reproach; to upbraid.
  • adjective Cast up; thrown upward.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Cast up; thrown upward; as, with upcast eyes. - Joseph Addison.
  • noun bowling A cast; a throw. - Shakespeare
  • noun mining The ventilating shaft of a mine out of which the air passes after having circulated through the mine.
  • noun Scotland An upset, as from a carriage.
  • noun Scotland A taunt; a reproach. - Sir W. Scott
  • noun computing A cast from subtype to supertype.
  • noun A message transmitted via upcasting
  • verb transitive, obsolete To cast or throw up; to turn upward.
  • verb transitive, Scotland To taunt; to reproach; to upbraid.
  • verb transitive, computing To cast from subtype to supertype.
  • verb To broadcast a message or data to aircraft or satellites, especially via radio waves; as opposed to uplinking to a specific satellite or aircraft

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun air passage consisting of a ventilation shaft through which air leaves a mine

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English upcasten, equivalent to up- +‎ cast.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word upcast.

Examples

  • Poirot walked unheeded along his grove by saddened angels, crosses, broken pillars, family vaults, stone hopes praying with upcast eyes, old Belgium's hearts and hands.

    [thought for the day] monday evening 2009

  • Working from the text and his imagination, the self-taught and self-destructive Williams contributed 159 drawings, from cartoonish thumbnails to the introductory full-page rendering of Tom that presented him in an almost pre-Raphaelite aura: wreathed in curls, with full lips and unfocused upcast eyes.

    Mark Twain Ron Powers 2005

  • Working from the text and his imagination, the self-taught and self-destructive Williams contributed 159 drawings, from cartoonish thumbnails to the introductory full-page rendering of Tom that presented him in an almost pre-Raphaelite aura: wreathed in curls, with full lips and unfocused upcast eyes.

    Mark Twain Ron Powers 2005

  • Objects accepted are predefined and you don't need to upcast and downcast.

    Bruce Eckel's MindView, Inc: 7-9-04 Java Issues & Directions Chris Jobling 2004

  • Objects accepted are predefined and you don't need to upcast and downcast.

    Archive 2004-07-01 Chris Jobling 2004

  • The upcast reflection of a lamp and shade, an inconstant series of concentric circles of varying gradations of light and shadow.

    Ulysses 2003

  • In various enchanted attitudes like the standing, or stepping, or running skeletons in Herculaneum, others remained rooted to the deck; but all their eyes upcast.

    Moby Dick; or the Whale 2002

  • In the faint upcast light of the courtyard lamps, he saw her in parts - a cheek's curve, her lips sharp as a carving.

    Gorky Park Smith, Martin Cruz, 1942- 1981

  • Her eyes, velvet-black in the shadow upcast by the lamp, opened slowly.

    O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1921 Various

  • Nowhere have these drains been carried through the houses, but they are taken directly into drains at the back, having specially ventilated manholes and being brought through at the ends of terraces into the road sewers; the ventilating openings in the roads have been converted into inlet ventilators by placing upcast shafts at short intervals, discharging above the houses.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 415, December 15, 1883 Various

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.