Verb

To hold up; to lift on high; to elevate.

* '>citation

To keep erect; to support; to sustain; to keep from falling; to maintain.

*

*

* {{quote-book

, year=1872 , year_published=2009 , edition=HTML , editor= , author=James De Mille , title=The Cryptogram , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher=The Gutenberg Project , isbn= , page= , passage=Uttering such broken ejaculations Mrs. Hart burst into a passion of tears, and only Lord Chetwynde's strong arms prevented her from falling. / He upheld her. }}

To support by approval or encouragement.

* 1748 . . Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral. London: Oxford University Press, 1973. § 18:

but there was still a connexion upheld among the different ideas, which succeeded each other.

Verb

(ensur)

To make a pledge to (someone); to promise, guarantee (someone of something); to assure.

*:

*:Thenne he cryed hym mercy and sayd Faire knyght for goddes loue slee me not / and I shall ensure the neuer werre ageynst thy lady / but be alwey toward her / Thenne Bors lete hym be

To make sure or certain of something (usually some future event or condition).

:

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist), author=Lexington

, title= Keeping the mighty honest , passage=British journalists shun complete respectability, feeling a duty to be ready to savage the mighty, or rummage through their bins. Elsewhere in Europe, government contracts and subsidies ensure that press barons will only defy the mighty so far.}}