Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adverb In or into a high place; high or higher up.
  • adverb Up in or into the air.
  • adverb Nautical At or toward the upper rigging.
  • preposition On or above.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • On high; in or into the air; high above the ground: as, the eagle soars aloft.
  • Nautical, in or into the top; at the masthead, or on the higher yards or rigging; hence, on the upper part, as of a building.
  • On the top or surface of; above.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adverb On high; in the air; high above the ground.
  • adverb (Naut.) In the top; at the mast head, or on the higher yards or rigging; overhead; hence (Fig. and Colloq.), in or to heaven.
  • preposition obsolete Above; on top of.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb in the air; in the sky
  • adverb above, overhead, in a high place; up
  • adverb nautical in the top, at the masthead, or on the higher yards or rigging.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adverb in the higher atmosphere above the earth
  • adverb at or on or to the masthead or upper rigging of a ship
  • adverb at or to great height; high up in or into the air
  • adverb upward

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old Norse ā lopt : ā, in; see an- in Indo-European roots + lopt, air.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old Norse á lopti ("in the sky").

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