up line

Noun

up line (plural up lines)

1. A railway line on which trains travel towards a major terminus.
   • The down line was cleared about midnight, or nine hours after the accident, but the up line was not in a state to admit of the traffic being resumed until one o'clock on the next day.1857 Alan J Day, Verena Hoffman - The Annual Register of World Events
   • The number of down-trains daily is fifty-one, and up-trains fifty; the ropes, therefore, travel 155.25 miles on the up-line, and 158.35 miles on the down-line, or altogether 313.60 miles daily.1842 Francis Whishaw - The Railways of Great Britain and Ireland Practically Described and Illustrated
2. (attributive, often) A member of a multi-level marketing scheme who has recruited others (their down line) and receives a portion of their earnings.
   • Many uplines convince their distributors to develop an "us vs. them" attitude that is completely unfounded in reality.1998, Charles F. Amick, Network Marketing: How to Play by Your Own Rules and Win, page 48
   • No one purposely goes into network marketing saying: “I hope my upline sponsor decides to make me a success and not a failure. I hope my upline is in a good mood today.”2019, Tom “Big Al” Schreiter, How to Build Network Marketing Leaders Volume One