Dictionary

upheave en · VERB

Etymology

From Middle English upheven, from Old English ūpāhebban (“to lift up, raise up, exalt, rise in the air, fly”), equivalent to up- + heave. Cognate with Dutch opheffen (“to lift, raise”), German aufheben (“to lift, raise, cancel, repeal”).

Meanings

1. (transitive) To heave or lift up; raise up or aloft.
2. (transitive) To lift or thrust something upward forcefully, or be similarly lifted or thrust upward.
   • Considering, further, the absence of most of the New Guinea mammals from the Moluccas, we are led to the conclusion that these islands are not fragments which have been separated from New Guinea, but form a distinct insular region, which has been upheaved independently at a rather remote epoch, and during all the mutations it has undergone has been constantly receiving immigrants from that great and productive island. 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 146:
3. (intransitive) To be lifted up; rise.

Forms

Deriveds

upheaver · upheaval · upheaving