uphold

present singular third person upholds · participle present upholding · past upheld · participle past upheld · archaic participle past upholden

1. transitiveTo hold up; to lift on high; to elevate.

   The mournful train/ Echoed her grief, [...]/ With groans, and hands upheld, to move his mind, /Besought his pity to their helpless kind

   1899, John Dryden, Geoffrey Chaucer, Percival Chubb, Dryden's Palamon and Arcite, page 5

2. transitiveTo keep erect; to support; to sustain; to keep from falling.

   Wednesday June 02, 2021, Has the Northern Ireland Protocol undermined the United Kingdom? Similarly, both the Government and the EU argued at the time the deal was agreed that they were upholding the Good Friday Agreement by implementing the Protocol.

   4 more examples

   A man's pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.

   1769, The King James Bible, Proverbs 29:23

   That misbegotten devil, Falconbridge, /In spite of spite, alone upholds the day.

   1623, William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King John, Act V, Scene iv

   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.

   1872, James De Mille, The Cryptogram, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2009

   In early May [of 2025], Mr. Trump said, “I don’t know” when asked by NBC News if he had to uphold the Constitution.

   2025 May 9, Cameron Joseph, “They’ve watched democracies fail. They see it happening under Trump.”, in The Christian Science Monitor

3. transitiveTo support by approval or encouragement; to vindicate; to confirm (something which has been questioned).

   let any moral come along and she would uphold it

   1960 July 11, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   but there was still a connexion upheld among the different ideas, which succeeded each other.

   1748, David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral., London: Oxford University Press, published 1973, § 18

   We must continually separate out and clearly articulate that support for the Jews as a people has nothing to do with upholding the policies of the Israeli state.

   1986 February 15, GCN staff, “Our Movement Is No Place for Jew-hating”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 31, page 4

   Synonyms: vindicate

plural Upholds

1. A surname.