[f. UPWARD a. + -NESS.]
1. Tendency or proclivity to rise or mount upwards; the quality of suggesting upward movement.
1614. Latham, Falconry, 21. I haue reclaimed an outragious, vnstaied hawke;… shee hath falne cleane from her vpwardnesse and high flying. Ibid. (1618), II. 117. If by nature there were euer any vpwardnesse or high flying in her.
1860. W. J. C. Muir, Pagan or Christian, 62. The lancet-headed windows, arches, niches, all are in harmony of upwardness. Ibid., 88. This entire upwardness of composition [in Gothic architecture].
1877. Blackie, Wise Men, 305. They by natural upwardness Remount to earth.
2. The quality of being upward; relative altitude.
1896. Dk. Argyll, Philos. Belief, 122. We cannot shake off the conception of high and low, of upwardness and downwardness.
