upstare

U1P3S1T1A1R1E1

verb

To stare or stand erect or on end; be erect or conspicuous; bristle.

Scrabble 9

Meanings

verbupstare (third-person singular simple present upstares, present participle upstaring, simple past and past participle upstared)

present singular third person upstares · participle present upstaring · participle past upstared · past upstared

  1. archaicintransitiveTo stare or stand erect or on end; be erect or conspicuous; bristle.

    […] aghast, upstared my Hair, I speechless stood!

    1999, Thomas W. Krise, Caribbeana
    4 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 Shelley

    Th' 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 42

    I 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

Origin

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

upstare. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/upstare

MLA

“upstare.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/upstare. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “upstare,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/upstare.

Source: upstare on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.