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Approve vs Uphold - What's the difference?

approve | uphold |

As verbs the difference between approve and uphold

is that approve is to sanction officially; to ratify; to confirm while uphold is to hold up; to lift on high; to elevate.

approve

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) . Compare prove, approbate.

Verb

(approv)
  • To sanction officially; to ratify; to confirm.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Can China clean up fast enough? , passage=It has jailed environmental activists and is planning to limit the power of judicial oversight by handing a state-approved body a monopoly over bringing environmental lawsuits.}}
  • To regard as good; to commend; to be pleased with; to think well of.
  • To make proof of; to demonstrate; to prove or show practically.
  • * (Ralph Waldo Emerson),
    • Opportunities to approve worth.
  • * (Thomas Babington Macaulay),
    • He had approved himself a great warrior.
  • * (George Gordon Byron),
    • 'T is an old lesson; Time approves it true.
  • * (Francis Parkman),
    • His accountapproves him a man of thought.
  • To consider or show to be worthy of approbation or acceptance.
  • * (Henry Rogers),
    • The first care and concern must be to approve himself to God.
  • * (Thomas Babington Macaulay),
    • They had not approved of the deposition of James.
  • * (William Black),
    • They approved of the political institutions.
    Note: This word, when it signifies to be pleased with, to think favorably (of''), is often followed by ''of .
    Derived terms
    () * approval * approvable * I approve this message * approvably * approbation

    Etymology 2

    (etyl) aprouer; . Compare with improve.

    Verb

    (approv)
  • (English Law) To make profit of; to convert to one's own profit;—said especially of waste or common land appropriated by the lord of the manor.

    • References

    *

    uphold

    English

    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.

    Derived terms

    * (l)

    References

    * * Notes:

    Anagrams

    * English words with consonant pseudo-digraphs