Meanings
plural user-uppers
- informalSomeone or something that uses up or exhausts quickly.
And when I've got leftover chicken, I often use this recipe as a first-stop user-upper, adding cold cooked shredded chicken to the pepper and onions and tossing altogether in the pan till piping hot all the way through.
2015, Nigella Lawson, Nigella Kitchen1 more example
I am trying to understand this idea of sustainability and I think it is connected very much to what Mr. Emmons is saying about staying put and encouraging people to become stewards and trustees of the land instead of user-uppers of the land.
1994, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Natural Resources, The Changing Needs of the West, page 58
Cite this entry
user-upper. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/user-upper
“user-upper.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/user-upper. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “user-upper,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/user-upper.
Source: user-upper on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.