Up"most` (?), a. [Cf. Uppermost.] Highest; topmost; uppermost. Spenser.
Dryden.
U`po*ko*ro"ro (?), n. [From the native Maori name.] (Zoöl.) An edible
fresh-water New Zealand fish (Prototroctes oxyrhynchus) of the family
Haplochitonidæ. In general appearance and habits, it resembles the
northern lake whitefishes and trout. Called also grayling.
Up*on" (?), prep.[AS. uppan, uppon; upp up + on, an, on. See Up, and
On.] On; — used in all the senses of that word, with which it is
interchangeable. "Upon an hill of flowers." Chaucer.
Our host upon his stirrups stood anon.
Chaucer.
Thou shalt take of the blood that is upon the altar.
Ex. xxix. 21.
The Philistines be upon thee, Samson.
Judg. xvi. 9.
As I did stand my watch upon the hill.
Shak.
He made a great difference between people that did rebel upon
wantonness, and them that did rebel upon want.
Bacon.
This advantage we lost upon the invention of firearms.
Addison.
Upon the whole, it will be necessary to avoid that perpetual repetition
of the same epithets which we find in Homer.
Pope.
He had abandoned the frontiers, retiring upon Glasgow.
Sir. W. Scott.
Philip swore upon the Evangelists to abstain from aggression in my
absence.
Landor.
Upon conveys a more distinct notion that on carries with it of
something that literally or metaphorically bears or supports. It is
less employed than it used to be, on having for the most part taken its
place. Some expressions formed with it belong only to old style; as,
upon pity they were taken away; that is, in consequence of pity: upon
the rate of thirty thousand; that is, amounting to the rate: to die
upon the hand; that is, by means of the hand: he had a garment upon;
that is, upon himself: the time is coming fast upon; that is, upon the
present time. By the omission of its object, upon acquires an adverbial
sense, as in the last two examples.
To assure upon (Law), to promise; to undertake. — To come upon. See
under Come. — To take upon, to assume.