upscale

1 of 3

adjective

up·​scale ˈəp-ˈskāl How to pronounce upscale (audio)
: relating to, being, or appealing to affluent consumers
also : of a superior quality

upscale

2 of 3

verb

upscaled; upscaling; upscales

transitive verb

1
: to make (something) more appealing to affluent consumers : to make (something) more upscale
The council is renaming them the Fashion Awards, globalizing them, moving the hoopla around them to the Royal Albert Hall and otherwise upscaling them.Vanessa Friedman
"Everybody's trying to upscale men's colognes because the prestige brands have taken share from the mass brands," says cosmetics industry consultant Allan Mottus.Ronald Alsop
also : to improve the quality of (something)
… even retained a handwriting teacher to upscale her penmanship—no more tiny circles over her i's. Brad Darrach
2
: to increase the size; scope, or scale of (something)
A star is an upscaled nuclear reactor, not a bonfire.Laurence A. Marschall
As a result, an upscaling of the problem of underrepresentation to the national scale mobilizes scalar politics …Emily Skop

upscale

3 of 3

adverb

: to or toward the upper, more expensive end of a range of products or services
He tried to move upscale—toward higher-cost, higher-profit garments, which, in theory, would be less susceptible to price competition.James Lardner
… chef Celestino Drago has taken Sicilian cuisine upscale in his chic Santa Monica restaurant.Thomas Matthews

Examples of upscale in a Sentence

Adjective a new upscale shopping center is under construction on the west end of town
Recent Examples on the Web
Adjective
The building was in an upscale neighborhood, across the street from a park. Maria Abi-Habib, New York Times, 21 Mar. 2024 School-age children sell candy for change and the upscale hotels and restaurants are closed. Claire Parker, Washington Post, 11 Mar. 2024 Sit down to eat a meal in any Kentucky restaurant—whether upscale or country casual—and there’s a good chance there will be a hot brown on the menu. Robin Roenker, Southern Living, 6 Mar. 2024 Perennial Corktown, a new upscale apartment development, opened in January at 1611 Michigan Ave. Susan Selasky, Detroit Free Press, 5 Mar. 2024 There are five restaurants and bars, both casual/to-go and more upscale sit-down, all with outdoor seating options. Kim Westerman, Forbes, 29 Feb. 2024 Among the new features at the upscale but unstuffy restaurant is an upgrade to the bar area, along with a few swaps on the menu. Heidi Finley, Charlotte Observer, 5 Mar. 2024 Unlike bigger airlines that attract more upscale passengers — and now offer their own bare-bones fares to compete with budget carriers — Spirit has not recovered from the pandemic. David Koenig, Fortune, 5 Mar. 2024 The move is part of Macy’s new strategy to focus on smaller stores and investment in its upscale retailers — like department store Bloomingdale’s and skincare chain Bluemercury — while moving away from malls. William Gavin, Quartz, 4 Mar. 2024
Verb
Sure, there isn't much in the way of 8K content, but the magic of this display comes in its brightness and its ability to upscale 4K content to its higher resolution. Parker Hall, WIRED, 24 Nov. 2023 Starfield, the new space RPG from Skyrim maker Bethesda Game Studios, is launching today without Nvidia’s upscaling technology. Tom Warren, The Verge, 31 Aug. 2023 In a side-by-side comparison that shows how the tool can upscale video resolution, Adobe took a clip from The Red House (1947) and upscaled it from 480 x 360 to 1280 x 960, increasing the total pixel count by 675 percent. Jess Weatherbed, The Verge, 11 Oct. 2023 There's a game mode too, which uses software that can upscale 1080p to 120 frames per second. Scott Gilbertson, WIRED, 11 Oct. 2023 The demo reportedly used Nvidia’s DLSS upscaling technology with ray tracing enabled, suggesting the chip inside the next Switch could be capable of delivering the latest AAA games. Tom Warren, The Verge, 18 Sep. 2023 This driver-level toggle is available starting today for AMD GPUs and will upscale lower-res games that otherwise don't have custom FSR support baked in. Sam MacHkovech, Ars Technica, 17 Mar. 2022 Each year, five winners across different categories are given £1 million to upscale their invention, meaning that across a decade £50 million will have been invested in solutions to repair the planet. Victoria Murphy, Town & Country, 30 July 2023 But Kierland Commons is a destination on its own, with high-end stores like Michael Kors and a Chanel fragrance and beauty boutique, as well as plenty of eating and drinking options, from sit-down French cuisine at Zinc Bistro to upscale fast food at Shake Shack. Endia Fontanez, The Arizona Republic, 17 July 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'upscale.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

Adjective

1966, in the meaning defined above

Verb

1963, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Adverb

1977, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of upscale was in 1963

Dictionary Entries Near upscale

Cite this Entry

“Upscale.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/upscale. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

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