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

(en verb)

To hold up a claim emphatically.

(I am defending her; see a similar example in the context below for comparison.)

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud,

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Engineers of a different kind , passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist . Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.}}

To demand continually that something happen or be done.

To stand (on); to rest (upon); to lean (upon).

* 1709 , Venturus Mandey, Synopsis Mathematica Universalis

Angles likewise which insist on the Diameter, are all Right Angles.