Home UK English upscale

Meaning of upscale in English:

upscale

Pronunciation /ˈʌpskeɪl/ /ʌpˈskeɪl/

See synonyms for upscale

adjective

North American

  • Relatively expensive and designed to appeal to affluent consumers; upmarket.

    ‘Hawaii's upscale boutique hotels’
    • ‘My daughter is a junior at Walt Whitman High School, an upscale public school in Bethesda, Maryland.’
    • ‘New Hampshire is among the most upscale Democratic electorates you'll find anywhere in the country.’
    • ‘Prices for these upscale public courses range from the eminently affordable to bordering on the budget buster.’
    • ‘Pete Rose and other baseball luminaries have been seen at Donatello, an upscale Italian restaurant.’
    • ‘The stores are a little more upscale and everything is cleaner and nicer as older buildings have been renovated.’
    • ‘The robbery took place at Aker Brygge, an upscale shopping centre and apartment complex on the Oslo waterfront.’
    • ‘That was Sully for you; living in an upscale suburban area, dressing like a homeless kid.’
    • ‘It can pay to meet current needs - for petroleum imports, food, or upscale foreign automobiles.’
    • ‘If you crave more upscale European-style fare, then try the Minori café on Kaminoge Street.’
    • ‘The company primarily focuses on private owners with upscale public facilities.’
    • ‘The rented yacht was docked at Fisher Island, an upscale residential community.’
    • ‘She relocated to take a job as a director of spa services for an upscale dental clinic.’
    • ‘Eventually they wandered into a fancy, upscale neighborhood not too far from Shelley's house.’
    • ‘It was a very classy, very upscale house.’
    • ‘A few minutes later they were pulling into the parking lot of a somewhat upscale, posh restaurant.’
    • ‘At Susan Simonelli's upscale New York City salon, she offers crystal therapy.’
    • ‘A security guard accused of torching several homes at an upscale development is due in federal court in about an hour.’
    • ‘The original guesthouse still exists, now an upscale restaurant and inn.’
    • ‘Intrigued by the postmark from an upscale Paris district, the composer opened the letter as he walked home.’
    • ‘Down the road, soldiers were ramming open the gates of an upscale house.’
    deluxe, high-end, choice, exclusive, select, top-end, luxurious, superior, premier, upper-class, elite, top, classy, ritzy, prime, chi-chi, premium, first-rate, high-quality, top-quality, high-grade, five-star, finest
    View synonyms

adverb

North American

  • Towards the more expensive or affluent sector of the market.

    ‘once known as the low-cost cousin of beef, fish has moved upscale’
    • ‘Volkswagen is trying to move upscale too, with only slightly better luck.’
    • ‘When I feel like going a bit upscale this is where I land.’
    • ‘What syndicated studies there are tend to skew upscale and can't be generalized to the total population.’
    • ‘Few residents expected Third Avenue to start going upscale so quickly, and some are already fearful that Park Slope and Carroll Gardens will merge to form one big brownstone Brooklyn neighborhood.’
    • ‘Go upscale!’
    • ‘Home builders have almost abandoned building homes for first-time buyers and moved upscale to attract all-cash buyers.’
    • ‘Since 2009, the brand has been moving upscale, though this is balanced by more accessible seasonal sales and a handful of outlet stores.’

verb

[with object]North American

  • 1Increase the size or improve the quality of.

    ‘he needs to extra funds to upscale the business’
    • ‘we wanted to upscale the decor’
    • ‘Colors are accurate, but detail is weak; the image looks like an upscaled DVD.’
    • ‘The game looks great just upscaled for the iPad.’
    • ‘For those with a huge library of DVDs, you will not be disappointed with the set's sharp and clean upscaled video.’
    • ‘It will later be upscaled to the entire state.’
    • ‘An image that is 800x600 is upscaled by, for example, 4 times, to make an image that is 1600x1200 inside the graphics processor.’
    • ‘The graphic chip also "upscales" the video to the resolution of your monitor.’
    • ‘Depending on how well your TV upscales standard-definition video, the image may look better that way.’
    • ‘The picture upscales very well, with crisp black outlines, and no print damage or grain.’
    • ‘The insurance company upscaled the amount it estimated the earthquake would cost.’
    • ‘I'm sure they can upscale the image to 4k and beyond easily enough.’

  • 2Convert (an image or video) so that it displays correctly in a higher resolution format.

    • ‘your HDTV will automatically upscale the content you watch’