"on the up and up"

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Wed, Jul 30, 2003 at 07:42:40PM -0700, Geoffrey Nunberg wrote:
> When you do a Google search, a substantial proportion of the hits
> that first come up for "on the up and up" have the  meaning "on the
> increase" or "improving." A lot of these are from UK, Commonwealth,
> or other foreign sources, but quite a few are American, too (see
> below). I wasn't aware of this sense, and I haven't found any
> dictionary that lists it

Have you checked OED? Sense b of the "on the up and up" phrase is
defined as 'Steadily rising, improving, or increasing;
prospering, successful'. The first quote is from 1930, and does
seem ambiguous to me: "From now on, we are led to believe, law
and order will be on the up and up, as the current phrase is"; I
assume that there must have been additional context to place this
in this sense. The second quote is from 1937, and is more clear:
"He certainly wasn't on the up-and-up when I knew him. He was
picking up a living doing odd jobs for any firm that would use him."

Oh, it also labels sense a (the usual sense) as "orig. and chiefly
U.S." but has no label for sense b, most of the quotes from which
are from UK sources.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED