Using "up"

[dajarrel]

You lovers of the English language might enjoy this, especially

those who appreciate a "good" colloquialism .

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than

any other two-letter word, and that is "UP."

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top

of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a

meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the

officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a

report?

We call UP our friends and we use it to brighten UP a room,

polish UP the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.

We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.

At other times the little word has real special meaning.

People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an

appetite, and think UP excuses.

To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing:

A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.

We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!

To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word

UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP! almost 1/4th of the

page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.

If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the

many ways UP is used.

It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP,

you may wind UP with a hundred or more.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP.

When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP.

When it rains, it wets UP the earth. When it doesn't rain for

awhile, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is

UP,

so...

Time to shut UP...!

Oh... one more thing:

What is the first thing you do in the morning & the last thing

you do at night?

U P

[AikiDale]

UPstanding!

[jessej]

What UP?

[tightloop]

Your response is UP to forum standards.....

[Rob Boudrie]

Consider a box bearing the following label:

^ up ^

If you set upside down, you get

v dn v

So up is down, and down is up.