up and
advEtymology Unknown. Possibly from get up and. Possibly a dialect use of up (verb).
1
Colloquial Abruptly; unexpectedly.
- Halfway through the performance he just up and left.
- However, all of a sudden she heard a sort of a knocking low down on the door. She upped and oped it, and what should she see but a small little black thing with a long tail.1890, Joseph Jacobs, “Tom Tit Tot”, in English Fairy Tales, page 3:
4 more examples
- I knowed then why she up and went there, because Ada told me.1932, Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, page 168:
- The dog up and died, he up and died And after twenty years he still grieves1968, Jerry Jeff Walker, “Mr. Bojangles”:
- When he saw me hand and face, he up and goes for the head's office before I can say 'struth' and, by the time I can get after him, it's too late.1990, Archie Weller, “Johnny Blue”, in Going Home: Stories, page 41:
- a friend of mine who, within ten days, said 'I've had enough of this' and he just up and died. It seemed he wished himself to die.2001, Charles G. Roland, Long Night's Journey into Day: Prisoners of war in Hong Kong and Japan, 1941 ..., page 193:
- Related terms
- up, up and leave, up and disappear