uprightness

English

Etymology

From upright +‎ -ness.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌʌpˈɹaɪtnəs/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

Noun

uprightness (countable and uncountable, plural uprightnesses)

1. (uncountable) The state of being honest, honourable, and moral.

   You are responsible only for your own uprightness. See to that and all else will take care of itself. - Miles Williams Mathis

   • 1621 May 4 (Gregorian calendar), Robert Saunderson [i.e., Robert Sanderson], “[Ad Clerum.] The Second Sermon. At a Visitation at Boston, Linc[olnshire] 24. April. 1621.”, in Twelve Sermons, […], [new] edition, London: […] Aug[ustine] Math[ews], for Robert Dawlman, and are to be sold by Robert Allet, […], published 1632, →OCLC, §. 18, pages 59–60:

     [S]uch as therefore ſhould not be adventured vpon vvithout mature and vnpartiall diſquiſition of the vprightneſſe of our affections therein, […]

2. (uncountable) The state of being erect or vertical.
   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 119:

     It is singular how forcibly this passage in my narrative brings to my mind a picture which used to be, some years ago, at a broker's—that charnel-house of the comforts and graces of life. It had been taken out of its frame, and leant in a dark and dusty corner against a perpendicular armchair, whose rigid uprightness seemed suited only to the parlour of a dentist, repose being the last idea it suggested.

3. (countable) The product or result of being upright.

Translations

state of being honest, honourable, and moral

• French: droiture (fr) f, intégrité (fr) f, rectitude (fr) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Irish: ionracas m

state of being erect or vertical

• French: aplomb (fr) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}