Word.ws English Dictionary

up and

up and adverb: abruptly; unexpectedly.

Adverb

up and (not comparable)

  1. (colloquial) Abruptly; unexpectedly.
    • Halfway through the performance he just up and left.
    • However, all of a sudden she heard a sort of a knocking low down on the door. She upped and oped it, and what should she see but a small little black thing with a long tail.1890, Joseph Jacobs, “Tom Tit Tot”, in English Fairy Tales, page 3

Examples of up and in a sentence

  • I knowed then why she up and went there, because Ada told me.1932, Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, page 168:
  • When he saw me hand and face, he up and goes for the head's office before I can say 'struth' and, by the time I can get after him, it's too late.1990, Archie Weller, “Johnny Blue”, in Going Home: Stories, page 41:
  • a friend of mine who, within ten days, said 'I've had enough of this' and he just up and died.2001, Charles G. Roland, Long Night's Journey into Day: Prisoners of war in Hong Kong and Japan, 1941 ..., page 193:

Origin of up and

Unknown. Possibly from get up and. Possibly a dialect use of up (verb).

Questions about up and

What does up and mean?
Up and means abruptly; unexpectedly.
How do you use up and in a sentence?
I knowed then why she up and went there, because Ada told me.
What part of speech is up and?
Up and is an adverb.

Words near up and in the dictionary

  1. up above
  2. up against
  3. up against it
  4. up against the ropes
  5. up against the wall
  6. up and
  7. up and about
  8. up and around
  9. up and at 'em
  10. up and away
  11. up and coming

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: up and (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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