Upstart v.

[UP- 4.]

  1.  intr. To start or spring up: esp., of persons, to spring to one’s feet. Also fig.

  With the earlier unhyphened examples, cf. UP adv. 5 c.

1303.  R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 5601. Þys man vp sterte, and toke þe gate.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Wife’s T., 190 (Lansd MS.). Wiþ þat worde vpstert [v.rr. vp sterte, vp stirte] þis olde wif.

c. 1400.  Tourn. Tottenham, iv. Upsterte the gadlyngs with thaire lang staues.

1412–20.  Lydg., Chron. Troy, IV. 919. Anoon Dispeir in a rage vp-sterte And cruelly cauȝte hym by þe herte.

a. 1529.  Skelton, Col. Cloute, 646. Sodaynly vpstarte From the donge carte, The mattocke and the shule, To reygne and to rule.

1554.  in Strype, Eccl. Mem. (1721), III. 139. The suffragan … upstert to the Pulpit.

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., I. i. 16. Their dam vpstart, out of her den effraide, And rushed forth.

1602.  2nd Pt. Return Parnass., II. v. 908. At last he [sc. the hart] vpstarted at the other side of the water.

1700.  Dryden, Ovid’s Met., XIII. 3. To these the Master of the sevenfold Shield Upstarted fierce.

1725.  Pope, Odyssey, XIV. 569. Upstarted Thoas strait, Andræmon’s son.

1816.  Wordsw., Ode Morm. Gen. Thanksgiving, 147. As from a forest-brake Upstarts a glistering snake.

1859.  Tennyson, Merlin & V., 421. The beauteous beast Scared by the noise upstarted at our feet.

  b.  Of the hair: To rise on end.

1513.  Douglas, Æneid, IV. vi. 2. Wpstert his hair, the voce stak in his hals.

1563.  Mirr. Mag., P iv b. While my heares vpstarted with the sight, The teares out streamde.

  c.  To spring up by growth; to come into existence.

1573.  Tusser, Husb. (1878), 49. Much wetnes … makes thistles a number foorthwith to vpstart.

1581.  J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 363 b. As one errour doth commonly engender another: there upstart another whelpe of the same litter.

1875.  Morris, Æneid, VIII. 637. There for the sons of Romulus the sudden war upstarts With Tatius.

  d.  To rise suddenly into view.

1874.  R. Buchanan, Poet. Wks., I. 4. O wondrous Faces that upstart In this Strange Country.

1880.  Browning, Pan & Luna, 22. Peak to base, Upstarted mountains.

  2.  trans. To cause to start up.

1892.  R. F. Towndrow, Garden, etc., 47.