Link Centre Dictionary

upholster

up·hols·ter

UK/əˈpɒl.stə(ɹ)/ US/əˈpɐl.stə(ɹ)/ uncommon archaic

verb

1.

provide furniture with padding, springs, webbing, and covers

Origin

Back-formation from upholsterer (“tradesman who finishes furniture”), from Middle English upholdester, variant of Middle English upholder (“dealer in small goods”), from upholden (“to repair, uphold”); equivalent to uphold + -ster. Sense development as well as form may have been influenced by conflation with unrelated bolster.

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.