▪ I. † ˈupland, n.1 and a.1 Obs.
Also 1, 4 uppe-, 3 upe-, 4 oppe-, 6 uplande.
[Subst. and adj. use of the phrase uppe land, in the country: see up prep.1 5 a, and cf. uponland adv.]
A. n. The parts of a country outside the towns; the rural districts.
| a 1122 O.E. Chron. (Laud MS.) an. 1087, Se cyng..bead þæt ælc man..sceolde cuman to him..of porte & of uppelande. 1209 in Eng. Hist. Rev. Oct. (1901) 720 Altres gens et numeement cil de upelande. 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 1315 Ȝyf þou do any man yn prysun,..Or bynde yn upland or in burgh. 1346 Little Red Bk. Bristol (1900) II. 14 Drap qest fulee sur oppelande. c 1350 Cron. London (Camden) 46 En cele temps fut le vj.me dener de bienz levé en Loundres et en autres cytés en Engletere, et sure upelond le x.me denier. 1377 Ann. Barber Surgeons (1890) 36 [Barbers from] uppelande. c 1500 World & Child 579 Poore men that come from vplande. c 1510 Barclay Mirr. Gd. Manners (1570) G iv, Forbidding great building sumptuous..in Countrey or uplande. [1864 Sir F. Palgrave Norm. & Eng. IV. 43 Rufus renewed his general summons to his English lieges. From..town and from upland they were called.] |
B. adj.
1. Living out in the country; rustic, rural.
| 14.. in Sc. Acts Parlt. (1844) I. 339 Of þe borowyng of uplande mannis pundis. 1598 Hakluyt Voy. I. 485 Taking away with him the vpland, or countrey people that should haue tilled the ground. 1599 Nashe Lenten Stuff E j b, Other engrating vpland cormorants will grunt out [etc.]. 1615 Chapman Odyss. i. 315 Kept alive Within an isle by rude and upland men. 1670 Milton Hist. Eng. ii. 48 In peace the Upland Inhabitants besides hunting tended thir flocks and heards. |
| Comb. c 1611 Chapman Odyssey ix. 308 This heape of fortitude [sc. the Cyclops], That so illiterate was, and vpland rude. |
2. Characteristic of the country; of rustic form or make. rare—1.
| 1666 Despauterius' Gram. Inst. (1677) C j, Pero, peronis, an upland shooe. |
▪ II. ˈupland, n.2 and a.2
[f. up a. 1 + land n.1, perhaps partly suggested by prec. Cf. ON. Upplǫnd pl., the name of the eastern inland counties of Norway; MSw. Upland (Sw. Uppland), a district in central Sweden; MDa. Opland Sweden, Norw. uppland, Da. opland the inland country.]
A. n.
1. The part of a country lying away from the sea; the interior or high-lying districts. Also pl. Now arch.
| 1579–80 North Plutarch (1595) 687 He determined to draw these pirats from the sea into the vpland. 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 12 Smal watch-towers, which..do giue knowledge vnto one another (and so to the vpland) of suspected enemies. 1618 Bolton Florus iii. vi. (1636) 193 Who transplanted this brood of Mariners..out of the very ken of the sea, and, as it were, teddred them fast in the uplands [L. mediterraneis agris]. 1825 Jamieson Suppl., Upwark, apparently, labour in the inland, or upland, as distinguished from employment in fishing. 1857 Hughes Tom Brown i. i, Leaving their mark in American forests and Australian uplands. |
2. An area or stretch of high ground; a piece of high, hilly, or mountainous country. Usually in pl.
| 1566 Act 8 Eliz. c. 13 §1 Beakons..in suche Place or Places of the Sea Shores and Uplandes neere the Sea costes. 1589 Fleminge Virg. Eclogues vi. 18 You the nymphs of woods, Close in the uplands [L. claudite saltus] of your woods. 1617 R. Brathwait Law of Drinking 147 Their Long Acres, Uplands and Downe-lands shall flie in a trice to retaine thee. a 1676 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. ii. vii. (1677) 192 The Downs or Uplands of Cammington in Huntingdonshire. Ibid. 200 The Up-lands in England yield strong, sinewy, hardy Men. 1724 De Foe Tour Gt. Brit. (1742) I. 9 They generally chose to leave their own Lasses to their Neighbours out of the Marshes, and went into the Uplands for a Wife. 1764 Goldsm. Trav. 107 Its uplands sloping deck the mountain's side. 1787 G. White Selborne i, At the foot of this hill, one stage or step from the uplands, lies the village. 1807 J. Barlow Columb. i. 298 How slope their up⁓lands to the morning sun! 1825–9 Mrs. Sherwood Lady of Manor I. vi. 176 A blue upland in the remotest distance finished this exquisite picture. 1879 Farrar St. Paul I. 414 He was working with Paul alone on the wild uplands of Lycaonia. |
b. In sing. with the, or without article.
| 1699 W. Dampier Voy. II. ii. 111 The whole Country, the Up-land I mean, seems to be much the same [kind of soil]. 1784 Cowper Task v. 197 As a shepherd separates his flock, These to the upland, to the valley those. 1813 Scott Rokeby v. ii, The eve, that slow on upland fades, Has darker closed on Rokeby's glades. 1856 Merivale Rom. Emp. xxxviii. IV. 359 They had emerged..from the woods, and had gained the open upland of swamp and moor. 1891 T. Hardy Tess viii, Their present speed on the upland being by no means slow. |
3. High ground, as opposed to meadow or marsh; ground not liable to flooding; a stretch of this. Chiefly local and U.S.
| 1572 Kent & Surrey Sewers Comm. (1909) 115 Alle the vpp lande betwin Newington and Lambeth Sewinge to the same sluce. 1580 Tusser Husb. (1878) 51 New broken vpland..for wheat is not best. 1598 Archdeaconry of Essex Minutes (MS.) fol. 49 Being sessed by the acar..at i{supd} the acre of vpland and ii{supd} the acre for marshe. 1639 in Coffin Hist. Newberry, Mass. (1845) 29 All the upland and meadow and marish between us and Ipswich. 1696 Aubrey Misc. 11 This Marsh-land..was never worth one Farthing to me, but very often eat into the Rents of the Up-land. 1708 Lond. Gaz. No. 4489/3, 46 Acres of Uplands, or Side-hill-Lands. 1763 Museum Rust. I. 307 If it was sowed in up-land,..you could not get the timothy-grass out of it. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. I. 159 A large upland, with its houses, its corn, and cattle,..loosened from its place. 1833 Tennyson Lady of Shalott i. 34 The reaper weary, Piling sheaves in uplands airy. 1841 N. P. Rogers in Whittier's Prose Wks. (1889) II. 227 The Pemigewasset,..meandering from upland to upland through the meadows. |
4. ellipt. in pl. Upland cotton. (Cf. B. 2 c.)
| 1858 Homans Cycl. Comm. 448 Cotton..[exported from] Florida. To foreign ports—Uplands, 30,880 bales. 1880 C. R. Markham Peruv. Bark 468 Species of cotton... New Orleans or ‘Uplands’... ‘Uplands’ grown in India. |
B. attrib. or as adj.
1. Of districts or places: Lying away from the sea or in the higher parts of a country; inland, remote.
| 1575 Russia (Hakl. Soc. No. 20) 9 The uplande countries of Russia..stretchethe exceding large and long. 1582 Batman Barth. De P.R. xviii. lxxxi. 376/2 The want of tillage..decayes villages, hamlets, and vpland townes. 1601 R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 14 The vpland townes are fairer and richer, then those that stand nearer the sea. 1632 Milton L'Allegro 92 Som times with secure delight The up-land Hamlets will invite. 1829 Scott Old Mort. Introd., The little upland village of Balmaclellan, in the Glenkens of Galloway. 1872 A. de Vere Leg. St. Patrick 73 Fire takes the little cot beside the mere, And leaps upon the upland village. |
b. Living inland.
| 1716 B. Church Hist. Philip's War (1865) I. 92 Some..Narraganset Indians, and some other Upland Indians, in all about 300. 1870 Burton Hist. Scot. lxvi. VI. 345 Among the upland folk of Scotland there were strong prejudices against all attempts to settle in distant wilds. |
2. Lying higher than the surrounding country; forming part of an elevated area; situated on high ground.
| 1610 Norden Spec. Brit., Cornw. (1728) 20 Their haye groweth comonly in the vplande and drye groundes. 1707 Mortimer Husb. 12 The worst of Up-land Meadows is that they often need mending or feeding. 1731 Miller Gard. Dict. s.v. Ranunculus, Take a Quantity of fresh Earth from a rich up-land Pasture. 1795 Southey Joan of Arc ix. 292 Dark on the upland bank The hedge-row trees..Rose on the grey horizon. 1843 Lytton Last Bar. i. i. 23 The twin green hills..with the upland park and chase. 1879 A. R. Wallace Australasia ii. 15 These highlands generally present the appearance of hilly upland plains. |
b. Living on, or frequenting, high ground. (In modern use freq. in specific names of birds, etc.)
| 1622 J. Taylor (Water P.) Farewell to Tower Bottles A 4, When Vpland Trades-men thus dares take in hand A wat'ry buis'nesse, they not vnderstand. 1695 E. Gibson tr. Camden's Brit. 408 Fenmen, a sort of people..of brutish unciviliz'd tempers, envious of all others whom they term Upland men. a 1825 [see uplander]. 1859 Darwin Orig. Spec. vi. 185 There are upland geese with webbed feet which rarely or never go near the water. 1867 Morris Jason iv. 2 The upland sheep Must guard themselves..Against the wolf. 1872 Coues N. Amer. Birds 260 Upland Plover. Field Plover. 1878 A. Pope (title), Upland Game Birds and Water Fowl of the United States. |
c. Growing upon high ground; belonging to species growing or developed on high ground. upland cotton, a class of short-stapled cotton. Also (of minerals, etc.), found on high ground.
| 1639 T. de la Grey Expert Farrier 309 Fine upland hay, which was cut about midsummer. 1759 Miller Gard. Dict. (ed. 7) s.v. Pasture, The best Sort of Upland Hay Seeds, taken from the cleanest Pastures. 1789 T. Wright Meth. Watering Meadows (1790) 43 The hay of watered meadows is by no means equal in value to upland hay. 179. Nemnich Polyglot Lex. s.v., Upland willow. The red willow. 1796 Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) II. 173 Upland Argillaceous Iron Ore. 1832 M{supc}Culloch Dict. Commerce 409 The upland or bowed Georgia cotton forms the..best portion of the short stapled class. 1833 G. B. Wood & Bache Dispensatory (1865) 710 Rhus glabrum.., called variously smooth sumach, Pennsylvania sumach, and upland sumach. 1858 Homans Cycl. Comm. 436/1 The upland cotton is a different species from the sea-island. 1894 Yellow Book I. 189 Where the upland hay..stretched thirstily up to the clouds. |
d. Flowing down from higher ground.
| 1653 W. Blithe Eng. Improver Impr. 56 Cleer from any Land-floods, or up-land waters running through them. 1707 Mortimer Husb. 18 Fenny Lands..drowned by Upland⁓floods and great Rains. |
▪ III. † upland, adv.1 Obs.
[Later form of up land, uppe lande, etc.: see up prep.1 5 a.]
Out in the country: = uponland adv.
| c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 176 To..helpe here pore neiȝeboris..& parische chirchis vplond. c 1400 Found. St. Bartholomew's (1923) 20 Hit ys tolde of a Richemanne vplond dwellyng that come to this Chirche. c 1449 Pecock Repr. i. vi. 28 Men of the cuntre vplond bringen into Londoun in Mydsomer eue braunchis of trees..and flouris. 1551 Bale Eng. Votaries ii. 67 b, In most places they dwelt vplonde. |
b. Jack (John) Upland, used as a name for a rustic. (Cf. upaland adv. b.)
| 1402 in Wright Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 16, I, Jacke Upland, make my mone to very God. Ibid. 40 A frere..aresoneth Jak Uplonde. 1529 Lyndesay Compl. 407 Ihone Upeland bene full blyith, I trow, Because the rysche bus kepis his kow. |
▪ IV. upland, adv.2 rare—1.
[f. up prep.2 6 + land n.1]
In the higher or inner part of a country.
| a 1674 Milton Hist. Mosc. ii. Wks. 1851 VIII. 483 Further up-land they have also built other Cities of Wood. |