upstream

Meanings

1. 1
   adv

   toward a river's source or against the direction of its current

   The rowers struggled upstream against the fast current.

2. 2
   adj

   situated nearer a river's source or against the direction of flow

   Pollution from the upstream factory reached the town by evening.

3. 3
   adj

   occurring earlier in a process, system, or supply chain and therefore able to affect later stages

   The team fixed the upstream data error before it reached the reporting system.

An English compound of up + stream, first describing movement toward a stream's source. Technical and organizational uses extend the river metaphor to an earlier point in a process, system, or supply chain.

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