A railway line on which trains travel towards a major terminus.
1857 Alan J Day, Verena Hoffman - The Annual Register of World Events The down line was cleared about midnight, or nine hours after the accident, but the up line was not in a state to admit of the traffic being resumed until one o'clock on the next day.
1842 Francis Whishaw - The Railways of Great Britain and Ireland Practically Described and Illustrated The number of down-trains daily is fifty-one, and up-trains fifty; the ropes, therefore, travel 155.25 miles on the up-line, and 158.35 miles on the down-line, or altogether 313.60 miles daily.
1 more example
[…] the engine, which continued its course till it reached Roade, when it was crossed from the down to the upline, and returned in safety to Wolverton.1842, Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal:
2
Business, MarketingOften A member of a multi-level marketing scheme who has recruited others (their down line) and receives a portion of their earnings.
Many uplines convince their distributors to develop an "us vs. them" attitude that is completely unfounded in reality.1998, Charles F. Amick, Network Marketing: How to Play by Your Own Rules and Win, page 48:
2019, Tom “Big Al” Schreiter, How to Build Network Marketing Leaders Volume One No one purposely goes into network marketing saying: “I hope my upline sponsor decides to make me a success and not a failure. I hope my upline is in a good mood today.”
Describing a higher level in a hierarchical management structure
2005 Human Capital: Symposium on Designing & Managing Market-Based & More Performance-Oriented Pay These managers then discuss their decisions with other first-line managers and managers at the next level — the up-line managers — to ensure the assessments and justifications are consistent across groups.