What does “U.P.: up” mean in Ulysses?
“U.P.: up” is the message on an anonymous postcard sent to Denis Breen in Episode 8. Breen takes it as a libel and spends the day trying to sue. Nobody knows what it means for sure; most readers take it as an insult about his sanity, his sex life, or both.
Edited by Aidan O'Leary · Last updated 30 October 2026
Where it appears
Several episodes. Mrs Breen, showing Bloom the card in the street outside Harrison's.
U. P.? —U. p: up, she said. Someone taking a rise out of him.
What it means in plain English
Mrs Breen tells Bloom her husband is going to law over the card. Bloom is sympathetic, but the joke spreads through the day: Breen is seen trudging round Dublin looking for a solicitor.
“Taking a rise out of him” is Irish for teasing someone.
Literary context
Joyce never explained it. Suggestions include “you pee up”, “up the pole” or simply “it's all up with you”.
References
- Ulysses, Episodes 8, 10, 12 and 15
- Don Gifford with Robert J. Seidman, Ulysses Annotated (revised edition, 1988)
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Questions readers ask
Who sent the card?
The novel never says. Later episodes hint at Alf Bergan, a prankster.
Related terms
K.M.R.I.A.
K.M.R.I.A. stands for “kiss my royal Irish arse”. It is the editor Myles Crawford's reply, in Episode 7, when Bloom asks him to give Alexander Keyes a free puff in the paper to win an advertisement. Bloom quietly decides it is not a good moment to ask.
Met him pike hoses (metempsychosis)
"Met him pike hoses" is Molly Bloom's mangled version of "metempsychosis", a Greek word for the transmigration of souls: the belief that a soul is reborn in another body after death. She asks Bloom what it means in "Calypso" (Episode 4), and the phrase becomes a running joke and a key idea.
Throwaway
Throwaway is the outsider horse that wins the Ascot Gold Cup on 16 June 1904, at 20 to 1. Bloom innocently tells Bantam Lyons he was going to “throw away” his newspaper; Lyons takes it as a tip. When Throwaway wins, the pub assumes Bloom won money and is hiding it.