Meanings
present singular third person upstares · participle present upstaring · participle past upstared · past upstared
- archaicintransitiveTo stare or stand erect or on end; be erect or conspicuous; bristle.
[…] aghast, upstared my Hair, I speechless stood!
1999, Thomas W. Krise, Caribbeana4 more examples
[…]With hair up-staring—then like reeds, not hair—[…]
1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]In the street or road he reluctantly wore a hat, but in fields or gardens his little round head had no other covering than his long, wild, ragged locks." These wild locks upstared more wildly when Shelley, having dipped his head, [...]
1896, Edward Dowden, The Life of Percy Bysshe ShelleyTh' Blofielders wor a right upstaren' lot o' chaps, and we had several owd scores ter set off agin them, so all Ranner woted for savage camp and Blofield didn't gainsay us.
1903, Charles James Longman, Longman's magazine: Volume 42I have no people living ; none, Thank God ! will mourn me there, / Dreaming in misery of one Whose clouded eyes upstare
1927, Collected poems of Alexander G. Steven
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Cite this entry
upstare. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/upstare
“upstare.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/upstare. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “upstare,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/upstare.
Source: upstare on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.