upon

American  

[uh-pon, uh-pawn] / əˈpɒn, əˈpɔn /

preposition

1. up and on; upward so as to get or be on.

   He climbed upon his horse and rode off.

2. in an elevated position on.

   There is a television antenna upon every house in the neighborhood.

3. in or into complete or approximate contact with, as an attacker or an important or pressing occasion.

   The enemy was upon us and our soldiers had little time to escape. The Christmas holiday will soon be upon us and we have hardly begun to buy gifts. The time to take action is upon us.

4. immediately or very soon after.

   She went into mourning upon her husband's death.

5. on the occasion of.

   She was joyful upon seeing her child take his first steps.

6. on (in any of various senses, used as an equivalent of on with no added idea of ascent or elevation, and preferred in certain cases only for euphonic or metrical reasons).

   He swore upon his honor as a gentleman.

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upon British  

/ əˈpɒn /

preposition

1. another word for on

2. indicating a position reached by going up

   climb upon my knee

3. imminent for

   the weekend was upon us again

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upon Idioms  

1. see act on (upon); call on (upon); chance on (upon); come across (upon); come on (upon); count on (upon); dawn on (upon); dwell on (upon); enter on (upon); fall back on (upon); fall on (upon); grow on (upon); hard on (upon); hit on (upon); incumbent upon; light on (upon); once upon a time; pitch on (upon); play on (upon); put upon; seize on (upon); set at (upon); take it upon oneself; wait on (upon); weigh on (upon); work on (upon).

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Etymology

Origin of upon

First recorded in 1150–1200; Middle English; up (adverb) + on (preposition)

Example Sentences

In 1884, the redoubtable Burnaby volunteered for service in the Sudan, where the governor-general, Charles Gordon, had been besieged in the capital Khartoum by the Ansar followers of Muhammad Ahmed, the self-proclaimed Mahdi; called “Dervishes” by the British, they had embarked upon a jihad to overthrow Egyptian rule of the territory.

From The Wall Street Journal

Why wouldn’t I wish that upon anybody?

From The Wall Street Journal

Well, outcomes are partly dependent upon who the VAR is - which makes consistency very difficult.

From BBC

Immediately upon leaving Sutherland’s home, Byers testified, he told his friend Kauffman that he definitely wasn’t interested.

From Slate

My research, like the HSCA’s, has relied upon the same basic set of facts about who beyond Byers was told what—and when they were told—about the Byers Bounty: three people, all told after the assassination.

From Slate