See up in arms in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "From a now-obsolete sense of up (“in revolt”).",
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"text": "Near-synonym: in the streets"
},
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"text": "The union members are up in arms over threats of pay cuts.",
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"ref": "1594, Christopher Marlow[e], The Troublesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England: […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Henry Bell, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act I]:",
"text": "Lan[caster]. My lord, will you take armes against the king?\nBish[op]. What neede I, God himselfe is vp in armes,\nWhen violence is offered to the church.",
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"ref": "1749, Henry Fielding, chapter 5, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume III, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book XVIII, page 301:",
"text": "Allworthy was of a cooler Disposition than the good Woman, whose Spirits were all up in Arms in the Cause of her Friend.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Angry; incensed; preparing for a fight."
],
"id": "en-up_in_arms-en-adj-aglkI6Mx",
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"(figuratively) Angry; incensed; preparing for a fight."
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"ref": "2003 September 28, David Diamond, “The Way We Live Now: 9-28-03: Questions for Linus Torvalds; The Sharer”, in The New York Times Magazine:",
"text": "Is file-sharing, which has the recording industry so up in arms, the “dark side” of open-source attitudes?",
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"ref": "2023 March 24, Nathan J. Robinson, “The Problem With AI Is the Problem With Capitalism”, in Jacobin:",
"text": "Many artists are up in arms about the new AI programs — and with good reason. Some are furious that their works have been used as training data without their permission.",
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"ref": "2026 January 22, Belén Fernández, “Europe cannot condemn colonialism à la carte”, in Al Jazeera English:",
"text": "Europe has not, over the course of more than two years of Israel’s ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip, managed to be sufficiently up in arms over the mass slaughter, preferring to go the route of superficial criticism and de facto complicity.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Vigourously protesting against something."
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"id": "en-up_in_arms-en-adj-3~U4jArr",
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"(figuratively) Vigourously protesting against something."
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"ref": "c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv], page 199, column 2:",
"text": "March on, march on, ſince we are vp in Armes,\nIf not to fight with forraine Enemies,\nYet to beat downe theſe Rebels here at home.",
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"ref": "1769, [Oliver] Goldsmith, chapter 18, in The Roman History, from the Foundation of the City of Rome, to the Destruction of the Western Empire. […], volume II, London: […] S. Baker and G. Leigh, […]; T[homas] Davies, […]; and L. Davis, […], →OCLC, page 372:",
"text": "News was brought him, that the Scythians, and barbarous nations of the North, were again up in arms, and invading the empire with furious impetuosity.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Armed for battle; prepared for or engaged in warfare."
],
"id": "en-up_in_arms-en-adj-Gf0jE-rg",
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"qualifier": "literal",
"raw_glosses": [
"(literal, now uncommon) Armed for battle; prepared for or engaged in warfare."
],
"related": [
{
"_dis1": "19 5 77",
"word": "in arms"
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{
"_dis1": "19 5 77",
"word": "under arms"
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"word": "up in arms"
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"etymology_text": "From a now-obsolete sense of up (“in revolt”).",
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{
"text": "Near-synonym: in the streets"
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22,
32
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"text": "The union members are up in arms over threats of pay cuts.",
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100,
111
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"ref": "1594, Christopher Marlow[e], The Troublesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England: […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Henry Bell, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act I]:",
"text": "Lan[caster]. My lord, will you take armes against the king?\nBish[op]. What neede I, God himselfe is vp in armes,\nWhen violence is offered to the church.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
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[
82,
92
]
],
"ref": "1749, Henry Fielding, chapter 5, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume III, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book XVIII, page 301:",
"text": "Allworthy was of a cooler Disposition than the good Woman, whose Spirits were all up in Arms in the Cause of her Friend.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Angry; incensed; preparing for a fight."
],
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]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(figuratively) Angry; incensed; preparing for a fight."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "in the streets"
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],
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53,
63
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"ref": "2003 September 28, David Diamond, “The Way We Live Now: 9-28-03: Questions for Linus Torvalds; The Sharer”, in The New York Times Magazine:",
"text": "Is file-sharing, which has the recording industry so up in arms, the “dark side” of open-source attitudes?",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
17,
27
]
],
"ref": "2023 March 24, Nathan J. Robinson, “The Problem With AI Is the Problem With Capitalism”, in Jacobin:",
"text": "Many artists are up in arms about the new AI programs — and with good reason. Some are furious that their works have been used as training data without their permission.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
130,
140
]
],
"ref": "2026 January 22, Belén Fernández, “Europe cannot condemn colonialism à la carte”, in Al Jazeera English:",
"text": "Europe has not, over the course of more than two years of Israel’s ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip, managed to be sufficiently up in arms over the mass slaughter, preferring to go the route of superficial criticism and de facto complicity.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Vigourously protesting against something."
],
"links": [
[
"protest",
"protest"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(figuratively) Vigourously protesting against something."
],
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"ref": "c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv], page 199, column 2:",
"text": "March on, march on, ſince we are vp in Armes,\nIf not to fight with forraine Enemies,\nYet to beat downe theſe Rebels here at home.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
89,
99
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"ref": "1769, [Oliver] Goldsmith, chapter 18, in The Roman History, from the Foundation of the City of Rome, to the Destruction of the Western Empire. […], volume II, London: […] S. Baker and G. Leigh, […]; T[homas] Davies, […]; and L. Davis, […], →OCLC, page 372:",
"text": "News was brought him, that the Scythians, and barbarous nations of the North, were again up in arms, and invading the empire with furious impetuosity.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Armed for battle; prepared for or engaged in warfare."
],
"links": [
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],
[
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"battle"
],
[
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"(literal, now uncommon) Armed for battle; prepared for or engaged in warfare."
],
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"tags": [
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"word": "up in arms"
}
Download raw JSONL data for up in arms meaning in English (4.9kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-08-28 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-08-05 using wiktextract (872fc7b and 4deed51). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.