Upshift

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A shift to a higher gear.

    "For example, the vehicle starts off in second gear or an upshift takes place at lower engine speeds."

  2. 2
    A shift to a higher level, such as of frequency, growth, economic level, etc.
Verb
  1. 1
    To shift to a higher gear.

    "You can upshift to second gear once the car is moving."

  2. 2
    To shift to a higher level, such as of frequency, growth rate, economic level, etc. transitive

    "The frequency of the light is upshifted."

Synonyms

All synonyms
change up

Example

More examples

"For example, the vehicle starts off in second gear or an upshift takes place at lower engine speeds."

Etymology

From Middle English upshiften, upschyften (“to raise”), equivalent to up- + shift.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.