up and over

Meanings

1. 1adjectivebefore a nounBritish

   Describing a door that tilts up and slides back horizontally under the roof when opened, mostly a garage door.

   Grammar: Almost always hyphenated before a noun: an up-and-over door.

   Patterns

   • up-and-over door

   We fitted an up-and-over door on the garage last spring.

   The up-and-over mechanism has started to squeak.

   An up-and-over door needs clear space inside the garage.

2. 2adverbnot comparable

   Moving first upward and then across the top of something to the other side.

   Grammar: Follows a movement verb: the ball sailed up and over.

   Patterns

   • go up and over something

   The cat went up and over the fence in a second.

   He lifted the ladder up and over the wall.

   The ball curved up and over the defenders.

Common combinations

up-and-over garage door

The up-and-over garage door stuck halfway.

go up and over

The path goes up and over the hill.

lob up and over

She lobbed the ball up and over the net.

up-and-over mechanism

The up-and-over mechanism needs fresh oil.

Synonyms and how they differ

overhead

Overhead describes position above you, while up and over describes the path of a movement or door.

across

Across gives only the sideways direction, without the upward lift that up and over includes.

roller

A roller door slides in a coil, unlike an up-and-over door which tilts as a single panel.

Word family

up adverb

toward a higher place

over adverb

across the top

overhead adjective

above your head

Commonly confused: up and over or over and up?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “up and over”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

Explore more words