Upshift

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To shift a vehicle’s transmission to a gear that allows higher speed or less engine effort
2. To move a car or machine into a gear that provides greater velocity or reduces engine strain
3. To select a higher gear in a mechanical transmission to increase speed and efficiency

Etymology: "Upshift" is a compound of "up" and "shift," and its earliest form was not about gears at all. In Middle English it appeared as "upshiften" or "upschyften," meaning simply "to raise," with the same sense of lifting something upward that "shift" carried in its older uses of moving or changing position. The mechanical sense came much later, once cars and machinery with multiple gears made it useful to describe moving to a higher gear. The word thus travelled from a general idea of lifting into the specific language of engines, where "upshift" became the natural partner to "downshift."

Synonyms: increase, boost

Antonyms: downshift, decrease