Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

1 ADV [ADV after v, be ADV ] When an actor is upstage or moves upstage , he or she is or moves towards the back part of the stage. [TECHNICAL ] □  Upstage and right of centre, Robert Morris stands with his back to the audience. □  Position a camera upstage. □  They slowly moved from upstage left into the centre. ● ADJ [ADJ n] Upstage is also an adjective. □  …the large upstage box that he used for his production of King Lear.

2 VERB If someone upstages you, they draw attention away from you by being more attractive or interesting. □ [V n] He had a younger brother who always publicly upstaged him.

up|stairs /ʌ psteə ^r z/

1 ADV [ADV after v] If you go upstairs in a building, you go up a staircase towards a higher floor. □  He went upstairs and changed into fresh clothes.

2 ADV [be ADV , n ADV ] If something or someone is upstairs in a building, they are on a floor that is higher than the ground floor. □  The restaurant is upstairs and consists of a large, open room. □  The boys are curled asleep in the small bedroom upstairs.

3 ADJ [ADJ n] An upstairs room or object is situated on a floor of a building that is higher than the ground floor. □  Marsani moved into the upstairs apartment. □  …an upstairs balcony.

4 N‑SING The upstairs of a building is the floor or floors that are higher than the ground floor. □ [+ of ] Frances invited them to occupy the upstairs of her home.

up|stand|ing /ʌpstæ nd I ŋ/ ADJ [usu ADJ n] Upstanding people behave in a morally acceptable way. [FORMAL ] □  You look like a nice upstanding young man.

up|start /ʌ pstɑː ^r t/ (upstarts ) N‑COUNT You can refer to someone as an upstart when they behave as if they are important, but you think that they are too new in a place or job to be treated as important. [DISAPPROVAL ] □  Many prefer a familiar authority figure to a young upstart.

up|state /ʌ pste I t/ ADJ [ADJ n] Upstate means belonging or relating to the parts of a state that are furthest to the north or furthest from the main city. [mainly AM ] □  …an idyllic village in upstate New York. ● ADV [ADV after v, n ADV ] Upstate is also an adverb. □  These buses will carry families upstate to visit relatives in prison.

up|stream /ʌ pstriː m/ ADV [ADV after v, be ADV , n ADV ] Something that is moving upstream is moving towards the source of a river, from a point further down the river. Something that is upstream is towards the source of a river. □  The water rose high enough for them to continue upstream. □ [+ of ] …the river police, whose headquarters are just upstream of the Isle St Louis. [Also + from ] ● ADJ [ADJ n] Upstream is also an adjective. □  Steps lead down to the subway from the upstream side.

up|surge /ʌ psɜː ^r dʒ/ N‑SING If there is an upsurge in something, there is a sudden, large increase in it. [FORMAL ] □ [+ in ] …the upsurge in oil prices. □ [+ of ] Saudi bankers say there's been an upsurge of business confidence since the end of the war.

up|swing /ʌ psw I ŋ/ (upswings ) N‑COUNT [usu sing] An upswing is a sudden improvement in something such as an economy, or an increase in an amount or level. □ [+ in ] …an upswing in the economy. □  Violent crime is on the upswing.

up|take /ʌ pte I k/

1 N‑SING A person's uptake of something is the amount of it that they use. [TECHNICAL ] □  The drug increases the number of red cells in the blood, enhancing oxygen uptake by 10 percent. □ [+ of ] …research in relation to the uptake of nitrate into vegetables.