Upstart

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Upstart \Up*start"\, v. i.
     To start or spring up suddenly. --Spenser. Tennyson.
     [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:



  Upstart \Up"start`\, n.
     1. One who has risen suddenly, as from low life to wealth,
        power, or honor; a parvenu. --Bacon.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (Bot.) The meadow saffron. --Dr. Prior.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Upstart \Up"start`\, a.
     Suddenly raised to prominence or consequence. "A race of
     upstart creatures." --Milton.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  upstart
       adj : characteristic of someone who has risen economically or
             socially but lacks the social skills appropriate for
             this new position [syn: {nouveau-riche}, {parvenu}, {parvenue},
              {upstart(a)}]
       n 1: an arrogant or presumptuous person
       2: a person who has suddenly risen to a higher economic status
          but has not gained social acceptance of others in that
          class [syn: {parvenu}, {nouveau-riche}, {arriviste}]
       3: a gymnastic exercise performed starting from a position with
          the legs over the upper body and moving to an errect
          position by arching the back and swinging the legs out and
          down while forcing the chest upright [syn: {kip}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  122 Moby Thesaurus words for "upstart":
     Babbitt, Philistine, Young Turk, adventurer, arriviste, bob up,
     boldface, boor, bounder, bourgeois, bourgeois gentilhomme,
     brazenface, break water, bright young man, cad, churl, chutzpanik,
     clown, comer, emigrant, epicier, fledgling, float up, fly up,
     fountain, gate-crasher, greenhorn, groundling, gush, guttersnipe,
     hooligan, hussy, ill-bred fellow, immigrant, intruder, jet,
     jump up, leap up, looby, lout, low fellow, malapert, minx, modern,
     modern generation, modern man, modernist, modernizer, mucker,
     mushroom, name-dropper, neologism, neologist, neology, neonate,
     neoteric, neoterism, neoterist, new arrival, new boy,
     new generation, new man, newcomer, newly-rich, nobody,
     nouveau riche, nouveau roturier, nouveau-riche, novus homo,
     outsider, parvenu, parvenue, peasant, pig in clover, pop up,
     pretender, pup, puppy, recruit, ribald, rising generation, rocket,
     rookie, roturier, rough, roughneck, rowdy, ruffian, saucebox,
     settler, shoot up, skyrocket, slob, smart aleck, smart-ass, smarty,
     smarty-pants, social climber, spring up, sprout, spurt, squatter,
     start up, status seeker, stowaway, stripling, surface, swaggerer,
     tenderfoot, tufthunter, upleap, upshoot, upspear, upspring,
     vault up, vulgarian, vulgarist, whippersnapper, wise guy, wise-ass,
     would-be gentleman, yokel