uphold
v.v. to support or defend a law, a decision, or a principle. You use this when someone in power says that a previous rule or choice was correct and should stay the same.
v. to maintain, support, or defend a law, principle, or previous judicial decision against challenge. Transitive; frequently used in legal and formal contexts to indicate that a higher authority has confirmed the validity of a lower ruling.
The supreme court voted to uphold the new law.
The committee promised to uphold the highest standards of safety throughout the entire construction process.
In a landmark ruling, the appellate court chose to uphold the original verdict, asserting that no procedural errors had occurred during the initial trial.
From Middle English upholden, equivalent to up- + hold. Compare Dutch ophouden (“to stop, cease, hold up”), German aufhalten (“to stop, halt, detain”). Compare also Middle Low German upholt, Old Norse upphald (“uphold, support”).
The verb is transitive and requires a direct object, typically an abstract noun like 'law', 'standard', 'tradition', or 'decision'.
The judge upheld to the decisionThe judge upheld the decisionUphold is a transitive verb and does not take a preposition like 'to' before its object.