Word.ws English Dictionary

up north

up north adverb: in the northern part of an area, country etc.

Adverb

up north (not comparable)

  1. In the northern part of an area, country etc.
    • She spent a few years up north.
    Antonyms:
    down south
  2. (New-York-City, slang) In jail, in prison.
    • Even if I'm locked up North you in the world
      Rocking three-fourths of cloth, never showing your stuff off, boo1994, Method Man, “All I Need”, in Tical
    • And when the fella be walkin' you can tell a
      Whole lotta sugar's in his core
      Feed the soft, he be hittin' off
      He heads fresh home from up North1995, Masta Ace Incorporated, “People in my Hood”, in Sittin' on Chrome

Antonyms of up north

Forms of up north

alternative formup North

Origin of up north

From up + north. The sense 2 comes from the fact that that in New York state many prisons are located in the northern part of the state.

Questions about up north

What does up north mean?
Up north means in the northern part of an area, country etc.
What part of speech is up north?
Up north is an adverb.

Words near up north in the dictionary

  1. up in one's grill
  2. up in the air
  3. up Jenkins
  4. up line
  5. up lines
  6. up north
  7. up on
  8. up on one's ear
  9. up one's game
  10. up one's own ass
  11. up one's sleeve

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: up north (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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Cite this entry: “up north.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/up_north. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.