Chapter Up a Tree to Usher of U by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Upsee-Dutch A heavy Dutch beer; Upsee Freese a Friesland strong ale; Upsee English, a strong English ale. Upsee Dutch also means tipsy, stupid with drink.

“I do not like the dulness of your eye,
It hath a heavy cast; `tis upsee-Dutch,
And says you are a lumpish whoremaster.”
Ben Jonson: The Alchemist, iv. 4.

“Yet whoop, Barnaby! off with thy liquor,
Drink upsees out, and a flg for the vicar.”
Sir Walter Scott: Lady of the Lake, vi. 5.

“Teach me how to take the German upsy freeze, the Danish rouser, the Switzer's stoop of Rhenish.”- Dekker: Gull's Hornbook (1609).

Upset Price The price at which goods sold by auction are first offered for competition. If no advance is made they fall to the person who made the upset price. Our “reserved bid” is virtually the same thing.

Urbi et Orbi [To Rome and the rest of the world ]. A form used in the publication of Papal bulls.

Urd [The Past ]. Guardian of the sacred fount called Urda, where the gods sit in judgment. (Scandinavian mythology.)

Urda or Urdan Fount (The). The sacred fount of light and heat, situated over the Rainbow Bridge, Bifrost. (Scandinavian mythology.)

Urda, Verdandi, and Skulda The three Nornir (Past, Present, and Future) who dwell in a beautiful hall below the ash-tree Yggdrasil'. Their employment is to engrave on a shield the destiny of man. (Scandinavian mythology.)
    Urd (Past) takes the threads from Verdandi (Present), and Verdandi takes them from Skuld (Future).
    “What is that which was to-morrow and will be yesterday? ” Verdandi stands between Skuld (to-morrow) and Urd (yesterday).

Urgan A mortal born and christened, but stolen by the king of the fairies and brought up in elf-land. He was sent to Lord Richard, the husband of Alice Brand, to lay on him the “curse of the sleepless eye” for killing his wife's brother Ethert. When Lord Richard saw the hideous dwarf he crossed himself, but the elf said, “I fear not sign made with a bloody hand.” Then forward stepped Alice and made the sign, and the dwarf said if any woman would sign his brow thrice with a cross he should recover his mortal form. Alice signed him thrice, and the elf became “the fairest knight in all Scotland, in whom she recognised her brother Ethert.” (Sir Walter Scott: Alice Brand, Lady of the Lake, iv. 12.)

Urganda la Desconecida An enchantress or sort of Mede'a in the romances belonging to the Amadis and Paimerin series, in the Spanish school of romance.

Urgel One of Charlemagne's paladins, famous for his “giant strength.”

Uriah Letter of Uriah. (2 Sam. xi. 15.) (See Letter ...)

Uriel “Regent of the Sun,” and “sharpest-sighted spirit of all in heaven.” (Milton: Paradise Lost, iii. 690.)
   Longfellow, in the Golden Legend, makes Raphael the angel of the Sun, and Uriel the minister of Mars. (See Raphael.)

“I am the minister of Mars.
The strongest star among the stars.
My songs of power prelude
The march and battle of man's life.
And for the suffering and the strife
I give him fortitude.”
The Miracle Ploy, iii.

U'rim in Garth's Dispensary, is Dr. Atterbury.

“Urim was civil, and not void of sense,
Red humour and courteous confidence.
Constant at feasts, and each decorum knew,
And soon as the dessert appeared, withdrew.”
Canto i.