Show all quotations
↑uptown adj
Also uptownish, up-to-town
Cf intown B
Stylish, sophisticated; prosperous—in phr go uptown to gain respectability.
Show quotations
contains audiocontains DARE survey quotes
- 1855 Willis Rag-Bag 340 NEast, Billings . . is a handsome man of a very up town address, with the finest teeth possible.
- 1930 Reno Eve. Gaz. (NV) 1 Oct 4/3 NYC, [McIntyre column:] A novelist describes the reputed break between a very uptown motion picture couple.
- 1943 Monessen Daily Independent (PA) 24 June 6/1 NYC, [Driscoll column:] Sheik Khalil also appeared occasionally at very uptown parties in the late evenings.
- 1966–68 DARE
- Qu. GG19a, When you can see from the way a person acts that he’s feeling important or independent: “He surely is _____ these days.”
- Inf TX11, Uptown;
- Qu. HH2, Names and nicknames for a citified person
- Infs KS8, LA17, TX18, 42, Uptown; FL28, Uptown boy; TX11, Uptownish.
- 1966 DARE FW Addit OK24, I can’t do much with these up-to-town cars.
- [1970 Major Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 119, Uptown: stylishness; wealth.]
- 1970 DARE Tape
- TN62, Boy, when he had an agate marble, he was uptown with a derby hat on. It cost a nickel.
- 1976 Lynn–Vecsey Loretta Lynn xi eKY, Yeah, Madison Square Garden, that’s right. So I’ve seen country music go uptown, like we say.
- 1979 DARE File Madison WI, Here, let me fix that so it looks real uptown. [Television crewman, adjusting microphone-tieclip.]
- 1986 Pederson LAGS Concordance , 1 inf, cAL, If a man had a corn sheller, he was uptown; 1 inf, neAL, Uptown = highfalutin.
- 1996 in 2006 DARE File—Internet , [He] was looking very uptown in a white suit and polka-dot shirt.
- 2004 in 2007 Ibid csWI, Java Potions Plus—a real uptown coffee shop in Wisconsin Dells.
- 2007 Ibid csIL, When I became a teenager I got to shop at Zwick’s new Concept Two store & thought it was real uptown!
- Ibid nwCA, We also have food service right in the pits, real bathrooms & paved parking. . . real uptown.