uplift
/ʌpˈlɪft/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
uplift verb: to raise something or someone to a higher physical, social, moral, intellectual, spiritual, or emotional level.
Verb
uplift (third-person singular simple present uplifts, present participle uplifting, simple past and past participle uplifted)
- To raise something or someone to a higher physical, social, moral, intellectual, spiritual, or emotional level.
- Whether you find it by your power as a man, or because, being near the gods, a god has whispered you. Uplift our State; think upon your fame; your coming brought us luck, be lucky to us still, remember that it is better to rule over men than over a waste place, since neither walled town nor ship is...1928, W[illiam] B[utler] Yeats, Sophocles’ King Oedipus: A Version of the Modern Stage, London: Macmillan and Co., […], →OCLC
- They recognised that their free-lay properties were just right for premises where there had to be easy access to underfloor cables or where office layouts needed to be readily changed without having to uplift the carpet every time.1986, The Architectural Review, volume 180, page 82
- To raise (a nonsentient species) into sentience.
- —genetically uplifted the ancestors of the saurs, and culturally—at least—uplifted the kraken. We are used to thinking of these species as wise and ancient, which indeed they are, but the octopods are their 'Elder Race.'2003, Ken MacLeod, Engine City, New York, N.Y.: Tor, →ISBN, page 79
- To aggravate; to increase.
- A man who abused a Police Community Support Officer for being transgender has received an uplifted sentence at Mold Magistrates' Court... At Court the prosecutor applied for the sentence for the public order offence to be uplifted to reflect the hate crime aspect. This resulted in the Court...2020 January 29, “Transphobic hate crime results in increased sentence for Mold teenager”, in Crown Prosecution Service, London: Crown Prosecution Service, retrieved 30 Jan 2020
- Synonyms:
- exacerbate, worsen, adulterate, aggravate, alloy, canker, contaminate, corrupt, debase, debauch
- To be accepted for carriage on a flight.
- To remove (a child) from a damaging home environment by a social welfare organization.
- In an affidavit supporting an application for a court order to uplift the child, a social worker said there were ongoing family violence issues between the baby's mother and father.2019 May 9, “Taken by the state: Don't take my baby”, in Stuff
- To remove (a document) from its current possessor and take it into one's own possession.
- To backport.
- To pick up; take possession of.
- In a Post by Northumbria Police:Sharp eyes on patrol! One of our eagle-eyed officers spotted a vehicle driving erratically in Lemington. The driver made off on foot, leaving the car behind - which has now been uplifted for having no insurance.2025 December 31, Next Door Website
Noun
uplift (countable and uncountable, plural uplifts)
- The act or result of uplifting (in various senses).
- The EMR Regional timetable improvements also include a significant uplift in Sunday services.2019 October, Tony Miles, Philip Sherratt, “EMR kicks off new era”, in Modern Railways, page 58
- This means that while initial funding will come from the public purse, landowners along the route will eventually pay back a share of the uplift in land values created by the new line.2021 February 10, “Network News: Additional funds enable preparatory work for Ashington reopening”, in RAIL, number 924, page 8
- A tectonic upheaval, especially one that takes place in the process of mountain building.
- Recent uplift of the Maine and Oregon coasts has not been enough to "undrown" the larger valleys; the shorelines are still submergent.1971, George Finiel Adams, Jerome Wyckoff, Landforms, page 143
- This is explained as an uplift in the coast at a rate of 16.2 mm/y in the period before 1900, a downlift of 2.8 mm/y in the period 1900-1906 and a rapid «sinking» of the coast at 22.7 mm/y in the 24 months before the earthquake.1982, Earthquakes: Observation, Theory and Interpretation (Proceeding of the International School of Physics "Enrico Fermi"; course 85), North-Holland Publishing Company, page 517
- The picking up and loading of goods to be transported by a mover.
- A brassiere that raises the breasts.
- Dressed in a light silk brassiere and scanties, which was all she wore under her frock, she was unkind enough to say, "I think those uplift fakes of yours are a mistake, Sadie dear. They raise false expectations in the amorous male." "But my breasts are all right," said Sadie, hurt, and pushing her...1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 15
- An increase in a fine or penalty due to aggravating circumstances.
- The CMA fined the companies involved £3.4 million, which included uplifts for director level involvement.2020, David Begg, Economics for Business, page 148
uplift meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Malayalam
uplift in Hindi
- उत्थान करना
uplift in Tamil
- உயர்வு, மேம்பாடு, உயர்த்து, மேம்படுத்து, தூக்கிவிடு
uplift in Bengali
- উন্নতি, নৈতিক, আধ্যাত্মিক অবস্থার উৎকর্ষ, উত্তোলন, আশা, আনন্দের সঞ্চার
uplift in Malayalam
- ഉല്ലസിപ്പിക്കുക, സന്തോഷിപ്പിക്കുക, ഉയർത്തുക
More languagesFewer languages
- uplift in Kannada
- ಮೇಲೆತ್ತು, ಮೇಲ್ಮಟ್ಟಕ್ಕೇರಿಸು, ನೆಗಹು
- uplift in Persian
- متعال ساختن
Examples of uplift in a sentence
- I thought I could uplift everyone, but... everything's gotten so bad.2026 June 19, Gooseworx, “Remember” (4:21 from the start), in The Amazing Digital Circus, episode 9, spoken by Pomni (Lizzie Freeman):
- A man who abused a Police Community Support Officer for being transgender has received an uplifted sentence at Mold Magistrates' Court...2020 January 29, “Transphobic hate crime results in increased sentence for Mold teenager”, in Crown Prosecution Service, London: Crown...
- Dressed in a light silk brassiere and scanties, which was all she wore under her frock, she was unkind enough to say, "I think those uplift fakes of yours are a mistake, Sadie dear.1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 15:
Synonyms of uplift
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of uplift
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | uplifts |
| present participle | uplifting |
| past participle | uplifted |
| past | uplifted |
| Noun | |
| plural | uplifts |
Origin of uplift
From up- + lift.
Words formed from uplift
Questions about uplift
- What does uplift mean?
- Uplift means to raise something or someone to a higher physical, social, moral, intellectual, spiritual, or emotional level.
- What is uplift in Hindi?
- Uplift in Hindi is उत्थान करना. See Uplift meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use uplift in a sentence?
- I thought I could uplift everyone, but... everything's gotten so bad.
- What part of speech is uplift?
- Uplift can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce uplift?
- Uplift is pronounced /ʌpˈlɪft/.
- What is the past tense of uplift?
- The past tense of uplift is uplifted.
Words near uplift in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: uplift (page history and authors); uplift (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); uplift (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); uplift (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); uplift (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); uplift (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-ncalif-uplift.ogg, en-au-uplift.ogg.
Cite this entry: “uplift.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/uplift. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.