upper

• Eye Girl is very moody. She is always zooted up on some really foul combination of uppers and downers and Rollerblading. Her bouts of Rollerblading seem to coincide with fights with Eye Guy. - 1997, Maggie Estep, Diary...
• Say, for example, a person starts with the use of a downer that reduces any anxiety and produces a sense of relaxation. When their energy levels drop, they take a stimulant in order to continue participating in the...

Antonyms: upper

1. Anything that cheers one up.

   • 1977-1980, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure Patrick was a cabbie & a dispatcher at Yellow Cab & when we got to the church where the [funeral]...

   Antonyms: upper

• The slewing ring is basically a large bearing upon which the upper is mounted. The outer race of the slewing ring is bolted to the upper, and the inner race is bolted to the car-body. - 1992, Organizational, Direct...
• These lines, GH and PC, are cut when the outline of the upper is cut out. - 2012, Reginald Laubin, Gladys Laubin, The Indian Tipi: Its History, Construction, and Use:

1. (shoemaking) The piece of material that forms the top part of a shoe or boot above the sole.

   • Holonyms: shoe, boot
   • genuine leather upper / balance manmade [label on a shoe]
   • The uppers of his patent-leather shoes were hidden by fawn spats. - 1930, Dashiell Hammett, chapter 4, in The Maltese Falcon, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, page 52:

   Related: sole tongue lace heel

2. (footwear) The Y-shaped strap on flip-flops.

• Thus a vicious circle is established: the uppers offer participation, and the lowers, feeling persecuted, withdraw. - 1993, Larry Hirschhorn, Carole K. Barnett, The Psychodynamics of Organizations:

1. A senior student.

   • Each Upper had his private Fag; but general fagdom consisted of obedience to the demand of every Upper, no matter in whose House he happened to be. - 1895, Edward Parry Eardley-Wilmot, E. C. Streatfield, Charterhouse,...
   • It is advisable, for example, to learn the words to the school loyalty and to “Fair Harvard” in the event that you are “asked” to give an impromptu “concert” in the Yard for the benefit of the Uppers. - 2016, The Best...

• Next, take up slack equally on the two uppers until they are snug. - 1984, Robert Forrest Burgess, Handbook of trailer sailing, page 90:
• During the seventh week, the limbs also rotate laterally in the uppers and medially in the lowers. - 2009, Michael A. Alexander, Dennis J. Matthews, Pediatric Rehabilitation: Principles & Practice, page 361:
• In this compact middle level between the uppers and the lowers, I actually had a counter in front of me, where food or drink could be safely planted, without fear of knocking over onto any patrons sitting in the seats...

1. A tooth in the upper jaw.

   • In the lingualized type of occlusion, contact of the lingual cusps of the uppers against the semianatomic teeth on the lowers will be seen in lateral, protrusive, and eccentric movements. - 2009, Arun K. Garg, Implant...
   • These reentrant folds, especially those on the buccal side of the uppers and the lingual side of the lowers, are quickly isolated by wear into infundibula within lakes of dentin. - 2010, Peter S. Ungar, Mammal Teeth:...
   • Periodically check the bite with the uppers and lowers to ensure that your actor's mouth will close correctly. - 2012, Todd Debreceni, Special Make-up Effects for Stage & Screen:

2. A denture or retainer for the teeth in the upper jaw.

   • Treatment was continued until November, 1909, when a retainer was placed in position in the lower, consisting of bands round the lower first molars and a wire passing lingually round all the teeth. The upper was...
   • The lower (according to the patient) was perfect, but the upper was bad, and the dentist was going to make the upper again. - 1941, Cal - Volumes 4-6, page 6:
   • The upper was retained with a Hawley bite plane; the lip bumper was continued for an additional 18 months. - 2010, David R. Avery, Ralph E. McDonald, Jeffrey A. Dean, McDonald and Avery Dentistry for the Child and...

3. An upper berth or bunk.

   • The Railroad Company further averred that it operated sleeping cars over its system of more than 7,000 miles of interstate roads, and that the Interstate Commerce Commission had prescribed rates for each of said...
   • But trains have changed. Gone are the uppers and lowers, partitions and cranks, and the green velour; only the porter remains, the same man, I think, a black man with palms the color of shrimp and a neck swollen with...
   • Twelve lowers and twelve uppers and three beds in the drawing rooms. - 2011, Studs Terkel, Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression:

• The 'upper' is one of nine apertures through which consciousness can leave the body at death (utkrantih). - 2005, Shingo Einoo, Genesis and Development of Tantra, page 128:
• When the Tao Te Ching says: “In thought, you can see the cavity,” it is referring to what the Triplex Unity describes as “When the upper is closed, we call it existence; when the lower is closed, we call it...
• It is said in Tibetan culture, in order to understand the upper, it is necessary to understand the lower first. Once, the lower is understood, the upper is just an introductory. - 2010, Tenzin Dhakpa Agongtsang,...