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
After a decade of serving everything from scallops to sea bass in the South of Fifth neighborhood of Miami Beach, the upscale seafood restaurant Prime Fish has closed for good. Connie Ogle, Miami Herald, 5 Apr. 2024 Getting ready to open Aqua Penny’s — her new, upscale seafood restaurant with a raw oyster bar — has been a labor of love. Jenna Thompson, Kansas City Star, 4 Apr. 2024 Trained inspectors visit hotels and restaurants throughout the year looking for distinctive fine dining and premium service amid upscale ambience. The Indianapolis Star, 3 Apr. 2024 In upscale Wailea, the Fairmont Kea Lani’s new cultural center, Hale Kukuna, hosts a rich calendar of lei-making, hula, bamboo-carving, ukulele, and Hawaiian language for all visitors and residents of Maui, not just hotel guests. Leilani Marie Labong, Travel + Leisure, 30 Mar. 2024 Montana’s Lone Mountain Ranch, an upscale boutique dude ranch, has been ranked the Number One Nordic Ski Resort in North America by Cross Country Skier magazine (as well as the Orvis Endorsed Fly Fishing Lodge of the Year Award). Larry Olmsted, Forbes, 29 Mar. 2024 The blooms became the markers of an elegant, upscale home from the 1830s onward. The Editors, Robb Report, 28 Mar. 2024 The upscale department store Stripling & Cox was an anchor tenant. Elizabeth Campbell, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 27 Mar. 2024 This modern, upscale shopping center has a mix of higher end brands, department stores, fitness brands, a movie theater, a cocktail bar, a children’s play area and various dining options. Carlos Rico, San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 Mar. 2024
Verb
Microsoft will be keen to not fall behind any of Sony’s AI upscaling efforts. Tom Warren, The Verge, 2 Apr. 2024 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

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 19 Apr. 2024.

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