upscale
Americanadjective
-
located at, moving toward, or of or for the upper end of a social or economic scale.
The boutique caters to upscale young career people.
-
luxurious, costly, or elegant.
verb (used with object)
noun
adjective
verb
Etymology
Origin of upscale
Explanation
Things that are upscale are made for rich people — they are high class, well made, or just plain pricey. If your friend takes you to a fancy, expensive restaurant for your birthday, you can describe it using the word upscale. Upscale neighborhoods are full of lovely, high-priced homes, and upscale vacations might involve yachts, exotic beaches, and private planes. Upscale is the opposite of downscale, which you could use to describe a run-down motel or a grubby, cheap diner. Both adjectives first came into use in the mid-1960s.
Vocabulary lists containing upscale
A Wealth Of Words: Synonyms for "Rich"
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Outcasts United
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The Parker Inheritance
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Increasingly, luxury resorts and lodges are smoothing the learning curve, pairing upscale accommodations with fully outfitted excursions that take care of the logistics.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026
It is a frenzied, organized dance with missed steps and dropped plates and canned tuna and mayonnaise gussied up into a fancy tonnato sauce that tastes upscale and flawless to the unsuspecting.
From Salon ● Jun. 28, 2026
There's a different kind of depth to the darkness at nighttime in the upscale Catalina Foothills neighbourhood of Tucson, Arizona.
From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026
It is sold on street corners from vendors with large gourds, and also seen mixed with spirits on cocktail menus in upscale restaurants throughout the state.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2026
As we drove away from the upscale neighborhood, I stuck my head out of the van’s window and shouted, “Hey! Anyone want a kid?”
From "Three Little Words: A Memoir" by Ashley Rhodes-Courter
Granted, this upscaled, agreeably rangy treatment of an adventure storyline that wouldn’t have been out of place on the show could have attempted more.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2026
The puppets are made from upscaled and recyclable materials – primarily cardboard and plywood – with a focus on bio-degradable and organic materials.
From BBC ● May 21, 2025
Back in 2017, a two-photon polymerisation printer was developed at TU Wien that enables upscaled printing.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 21, 2024
FSR 2.0’s temporal upscaling uses previous frame color, depth and motion vectors in the rendering pipeline to create very high-quality upscaled output with optimized anti-aliasing across all image quality presets and output resolutions.
From The Verge ● Mar. 17, 2022
The bigger question, propelling this feisty, funny and poignant comedy-drama arriving Friday, is how much its setting — Boyle Heights, Los Angeles — can be upscaled and “discovered” until it is no longer Boyle Heights.
From New York Times ● Feb. 20, 2020
For others, such as Leeds United in northern England and Spanish team Getafe, upscaling is essential to stay competitive in major leagues where player transfer fees and salaries are huge.
From Barron's ● Mar. 11, 2026
The weight penalty includes not only the electrics but everything it takes to make that mass manageable on the road, upscaling everything from tires and wheels to suspension and steering.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 1, 2026
It made a big deal of PC-exclusive features including unlocked frame rates, upscaling tech and support for ultrawide displays seen as an advantage souped-up gaming rigs.
From BBC ● May 31, 2024
These findings provide strong evidence for integrating and upscaling nature-based components into coastal defenses, but the team advised doing so with caution.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 9, 2024
Making “Revanchist,” he returned to old project files dating back to 2014, rummaging through unfinished ideas and upscaling the freshest ones.
From New York Times ● Oct. 23, 2023
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
