Meaning & use
uphold
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Meanings
verbtransitive
To keep a rule, principle or standard in force by acting according to it and defending it.
Grammar: Always takes an object: uphold the law.
Patterns
- uphold the law
- uphold a tradition
Police officers swear to uphold the law.
The school works hard to uphold its high standards.
Citizens have a duty to uphold basic human rights.
verbtransitivelegal
To decide that an earlier judgment or ruling was correct and should stand, as a court does.
Grammar: A court is the usual subject: the court upheld the verdict.
Patterns
- uphold a decision
- uphold an appeal
The appeals court upheld the original verdict.
The committee upheld her complaint after reviewing the evidence.
Judges upheld the ban despite widespread criticism.
Word forms
| third person singular | upholds |
|---|---|
| past tense | upheld |
| past participle | upheld |
| -ing form | upholding |
Common combinations
- uphold the law
- Judges must uphold the law without favor.
- uphold a ruling
- The high court upheld the ruling on Friday.
- uphold a tradition
- The family has upheld this tradition for generations.
- uphold the principle
- We must uphold the principle of free speech.
- uphold human rights
- The treaty requires countries to uphold human rights.
Synonyms and how they differ
- maintain
- Maintain means to keep something going and is less formal and less tied to rules than uphold.
- defend
- Defend suggests protecting against attack, whereas uphold stresses keeping something valid or in force.
- confirm
- Confirm is the gentler word for stating that something is true, while uphold is used when a body such as a court backs a decision.
- support
- Support is general and warm, but uphold carries a stricter sense of honoring a rule or principle.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: uphold or uphold vs upholster?
uphold vs uphold vs upholster
Upholster means to cover furniture with fabric and padding, and has nothing to do with defending rules, despite the similar start.
Practice
The Supreme Court voted to ___ the lower court's decision, so the sentence stood.
Choose one answer.
Uphold means to confirm that a decision was right, so the sentence stands. Overturn would cancel it, which contradicts the result.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “uphold”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.