upping

Pluraluppings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of up.

   The factory is upping production to meet holiday demand.

   Lawmakers are upping the penalties for repeat offenders.

   Note

   The -ing form does double duty here. It builds progressives (is upping production) and serves as a gerund that still behaves like a verb, taking a direct object with no "of". That bare object separates it from the noun for an increase, which needs "of" and can be counted. Most uses carry the colloquial "raise the amount" meaning, though the poetic "lift" and slang "upload" meanings share the same spelling.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act or process of increasing something in amount, size, or degree.

   The sudden upping of interest rates caught many investors off guard.

   Workers welcomed the upping of the minimum wage after years without change.

   Similarincrease, raising, hike, boost, rise

   Oppositereduction, lowering, decrease, cut

   Note

   A noun that readily takes a plural: uppings of all allowances, sharp uppings of production. Both phrasings come from official debate, the Canadian House of Commons in 1942 and a U.S. Senate committee on national defense in 1943, so the word sits comfortably in formal policy talk. An of-phrase usually names what rises, and that is what tells it apart from the verb form.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2