filtering up
Percolating toward top
Filtering up describes movement from lower levels to higher ones—the opposite of filtering down.
Information filters up through an organization when it travels from employees to management.
Wealth filters up when economic policies benefit the rich at the expense of the poor.
The phrase often carries critical undertones, suggesting resources or attention flow upward when they should spread more broadly: Tax cuts that were supposed to help everyone just filtered up to the top.
- grassrootsCommon people as political base
- grass rootsOrdinary citizens as political base
- ground levelSurface elevation plane
- rank and fileOrdinary members collectively
- upward mobilityRising social or economic status
microfinance · feedback loops · chain reaction · energy flow · user-generated content · percolation · knowledge transfer · team collaboration · capillary action · word of mouth · democratization · groundswell · rising tide · bubble up · wealth accumulation · bottom-up · crowdsourcing · carbon sequestration
filtering upfiltering down
Passing through gradually
trickling down · top-down · handed down · passed down · passing down
filtering uptrickle-down
Theory wealth spreads below
command and control · mandated · decreed · dictated · imposed
filter, filtering, filtered, filters, filtrate, filtration, infiltrate, infiltration, infiltrator