ˈupmost, a.
Also Sc. 6 vpmest, 6–9 upmaist.
[f. up adv.2 + -most.]
1. = uppermost a. (in various senses).
| 1560 Bible (Genev.) Isaiah xvii. 6 Two or thre beries are in the top of the vpmoste boughs. 1567 Drant Horace, Ep. To Rdr. *iv, He that woulde come to the vpmoste top of an highe hill. 1599 T. M[oufet] Silkwormes 62 That which lies vpmost is of least renowne. 1632 Lithgow Trav. ix. 391 Sulphure streames, which haue burst forth from the vpmost tops of ætna. Ibid. 418 Podalia, the vpmost Countrey of Polland. 1664 Evelyn Kal. Hort. 75 Taking away some of the upmost exhausted earth, and stirring up the rest. 1715 Leoni Palladio's Archit. (1721) II. 16 The middle of the upmost Wall ought to be perpendicular with the middle of the nethermost. 1808 Scott Let. to Sharpe 30 Dec. in Lockhart, You have..been upmost in my thoughts for some time past. 1859 Gullick & Timbs Paint. 163 The upmost flat surface is divided into nine compartments. 1875 Lightfoot Comm. Col. 411/1 What was the thought upmost in the Apostle's mind..? |
b. absol. or as n.
| 1589 Fleming Virg. Georg. iii. 43 Let him skarse set his feet vpon th' upmost [note The superfie or vppermost part] of the sand. |
† 2. Sc. = umest a. 1. Obs.
| 1592 Lyndesay's Wks. 134–5 The Vicar..will nocht faill to tak ane kow, And vpmaist claith. 1609 Skene Reg. Maj., Stat. Will. 11 The forestar sall take..his vpmaist claith. 1620 Henry's Wallace x. i. 229 Wallace in haste gart take their upmost weed. |