move up

English

Verb

move up (third-person singular simple present moves up, present participle moving up, simple past and past participle moved up)

(transitive) To put (something) higher or further.
1. (transitive) To promote, put onto a higher level.
  - 1951, Herman Wouk, chapter 11, in The Caine Mutiny, Boston: Little, Brown, published 2018:
    […] Queeg was obtaining a command for which he was rather young. “They’re moving you fellows up now pretty fast.”
  - 1969, Maya Angelou, chapter 10, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York: Random House, page 61:
    We were moved up a grade because our teachers thought we country children would make our classmates feel inferior―and we did.
2. (transitive) To raise, put onto a higher place.
3. (transitive) To put higher on a list.
(transitive, US) To reschedule (something) to an earlier date or time.
Synonyms: move forward, prepone

Antonym: move back

The meeting was moved up to Tuesday.
- 1988, Anne Tyler, chapter 3, in Breathing Lessons‎^[1], Penguin, page 108:
  “She’s upset she has to walk me down the aisle,” Serena told Maggie.
  “Oh if only your uncle Maynard would come and do it instead!” Anita cried. “Maybe we should move the wedding up a week and give him another chance […] ”
(intransitive) To move higher.
1. To be promoted.
2. To pass to a higher level.
(intransitive) To move one's position to allow others to occupy a place.
Synonym: move over

Can you move up to the next seat so we can sit together, please?
- 2020 June 3, Philip Haigh, “Who can clean up Manchester's mess?”, in Rail, page 43:
  "It's hard to articulate how tightly packed we have become accustomed to - [...] 'Move up, we need to get one more in.' The only picture I can paint is that it is often not possible to reach into my jacket pocket to retrieve my mobile phone, because I cannot raise my arms. Sardines enjoy more space."
(intransitive) To move forward (especially when waiting in a queue / line).
- 1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 10, in Babbitt, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC, page 135:
  I was standing on the platform waiting for the people to let me into the car, and this beast, this conductor, hollered at me, ‘Come on you, move up!’ […] I said, ‘it’s the people ahead of me, who won’t move up,’

Derived terms