all up adj.
1. of individuals , schemes, etc., ruined, finished, defeated.
 | Dramatic History of Master Edward 24: Now when any of our sex is blasted, it is all up with us, we are unhappy enough to be reduced to the necessity of going into company, or starving. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Way to Get Married in Inchbold (1808) XXV 8: Dear Dashall, all’s up [...] Nothing can save you but the ready. | |
| Exeter & Plymouth Gaz. 23 June 3/2: He endeavoured to avoid the punishment, but it was ‘all up’. | |
| Oliver Twist (1966) 254: It’s all up, Bill! [...] drop the kid and show ’em your heels. | |
| Adventures of Mr Ledbury I 184: I’m afraid it’s all up! | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Argus (Melbourne) 31 Dec. 7/2: ‘Stevens struck Owens over the head; and after throwing him overboard, he said, “It’s all up now,’ or words to that effect, and jumped overboard. | |
| Recollections of G. Hamlyn (1891) 199: I ran out, and met James in the verandah. ‘It’s all up,’ I said. ‘Get the women and children into the river, and let the men go up to windward with the sheep-skins.’. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Columbia Phoenix (SC) 20 Apr. 4/2: Pete I knowed war a dead shot; and ef he could hev ten seconds for an aim, it war all up with this coon. | |
| Sportsman 23 Nov. 2/1: Notes on News [...] [I]t was ‘all up’ long ago with everybody not of his peculiar fold. | |
| Innocents at Home 333: It’s all up, you know, it’s all up. It ain’t no use. They’ve scooped him. | |
| Golden Butterfly II 94: Scrimmy knew it was all up. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Mar. 17/2: He hurried home, and in an earnest tone, / Spoke this wise soberly unto his mother – / ‘Look here, old party, it’s all up! I’m done; / I’ve had a blazin’ roughish sort of life, / I’ve never brought you anything but sorrow, / But that’s enough, I’ve cut it like a knife, / I’ve joined the soldiers, and I start tomorrow.’. | |
| Eve. News (Sydney) 15 May 7/6: Well, the thing was a failure. It was all up with our escape, and we knew we should get in for it. | |
| Twenty-Five Years of Detective Life I 67: ‘It’s all up, Alf,’ I said ‘you might as well give up the property.’. | |
| Wind in the Willows (1995) 217: It’s all up! It’s all over now! Chains and policemen again! Prison again! | |
| Sport (Adelaide) 27 Mar. 3/3: [I]f Jack T sees you it is all up with you . | |
| Marvel 24 Apr. 16: ‘It’s all up, Chick!’ he cried dismally. | |
| Nine Tailors (1984) 304: Drive like hell, men, it’s all up! | |
| ‘The Tell-tale Clock’ in Late Night on Watling Street (1969) 111: It’s all up [...] They’ve planted a tell-tale clock on every wagon. |
2. dead.
| implied in all up with | |
| My Brilliant Career 133: Being unable to swim, but for my companion it would have been all up for me. |
3. (N.Z. prison) a sentence of life imprisonment.
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 6/2: all up n. life imprisonment. |
In phrases
ruinous, being death for.
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Dublin U. Mag. Oct. 460/2: Sure, if it wasn’t for him, it would be all up the country with them poor M’Cartans. | |
| Illus. London News 1 July 10/3: The Haymarket still, gives us Kean as the Dane, / But it’s all up the country with Garden and Lane. | |
| Bell’s Life in Sydney 26 Jan. 3/1: This act [i.e. issuing a warrant] accomplished, and having made it all up the country with her, he would [...] retire to the bush. | |
| Londinismen (2nd edn). | |
| DSUE (8th edn) 15/2: † by 1935. |
1. of a person, doomed, bankrupt, hopeless.
| Henry I 65: If they [i.e. nettles steeped in urine] remain green and fresh, the sick will live; else it is all up with him. | |
| Pettyfogger Dramatized I iii: ’Tis all up with him. | |
| All at Coventry II i: It’s all up with me. | |
| Jack Randall’s Diary 68: Tipp’d him such thumps, that very soon, by Goles, It was all up with th’ Master of the Rolls. | |
| Real Life in Ireland 43: Why Brian you’re quite struck; a cock looking at chalk; it’s all up with you – bottom up, like Lord Clare in the fish pond! | |
| Bk of Sports 3: If you touch them [i.e. ghosts], it is all up with you. | |
| ‘Nights At Sea’ in Bentley’s Misc. Apr. 595: Why then, Andy, it’s all up with you! | |
| ‘The Merchant of Venice’ in Ingoldsby Legends (1842) 55: Dear Friend [...] all’s up with me – I / Have nothing on earth now to do but to die! | |
| Paul Foster’s Daughter I 230: Ah! that’s it. It’s all up with me! I’m beaten — hand over stakes. | |
| (con. 1840s–50s) London Labour and London Poor III 93/1: Now if these people was to go frontwards, it would be all up with me. | |
| ‘Mincemeat, or Chop, Chop, Chop’ in My Young Wife and I Songster 28: When this fellow made free, it was all up with me. | |
| Cruel London I 229: Rookwood scratched! Nay, then it’s all up with Jack Kerman, and time for him to talk Lincolnshire and go back to the plough. | |
| letter 21 Mar. in Gone To Texas (1884) 74: He seems to know [...] that, if he’s bitten, it’s all up with him. | |
| ‘Stalky’ Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 18: I’m afraid it’s all up with ’em. We’d better get out. | |
| People of the Abyss 59: I said to myself, ‘It’s all up with you, Jack my boy; so here goes.’ An’ I jumped over after him, my mind made up to drown us both. | |
| Susan Lenox II 143: If he ever found out I had a lover [...] why, it’d be all up with me. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Oct. 15/3: Fortunately the big timber missed him, but he was pinned by a limb, and had four broken bones. ‘I thought it was all up with me,’ said Hughie feebly, when Craig had made him comfortable in the trap. | |
| Autobiog. of a Thief 190: I thought it was ‘all up’ with us. | |
| Good Companions 355: If the police had got hold of that letter, it might be all up with him. | |
| Vile Bodies 184: Had it fallen into the petrol it would probably have been all up with Miss Runcible. | |
| Tropic of Capricorn (1964) 104: If you ever fall out with O’Rourke it’s all up with you ... | |
| Caught (2001) 36: Well, it’s all up with you this trip, you silly bastard. | |
| Murder Is Announced (1958) 60: It’s all up with him. And so in blind panic he turns the revolver on himself. | |
| (con. 1940s) Singapore Grip 147: So all is up with the Major! |
2. of an object or plan, ruined, pointless, destroyed, finished.
| Three Clerks (1869) 97: So it’s all up with the New Friendships, is it? | |
| ‘The Seamy Side’ in Appleton’s Journal (N.Y.) Nov. 407: Balbus feared that it was all up with the army, did he? | |
| Marvel XIV:343 June 15: It’s all up wid me latest West End pants! | |
| Gem 17 Oct. 14: The feed’s been scoffed. Then it’s all up with the grub. | |
| Boy’s Own Paper XL:4 174: ‘It’s all up with any attempt at counting!’ he muttered angrily, ‘till that noisy crowd has cleared off.’. |