stick up, as in armed robbery. And, while I was typing this, another occurred to me: up yours. Also, mentioned above, shut up.
Negative connotations, yes, but all three have distinctly positive (ie, in these cases, upward components), do they not?
a stick up is merely short for "stick your hands up in the air (NB: If you should try this at home, it would behoove you to use bank-appropriate stationery see related thread)
up yours i shall politely decline to elaborate, but it believe it's clear that unless the recipient is practicing some sort of inverted meditation this suggestion would quite assuredly be decriptive of an upward motion.
shut up is a bit more nebulous, but one could easily argue that this imperative is short for "shut up your mouth", and considering our physiology which forces us to raise up our lower jaw in order to meet our upper jaw, compliance would indeed involve--necessitate, even--an upward motion.
bridget, anticipating the collective rolling of eyes, obligingly shuts up, muttering 'nihil est incertius vulgo'
