upend
Americanverb (used with object)
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upends,
present (3rd person singular)
-
upended,
past participle, past
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upending
present participle
-
to set on end, as a barrel or ship.
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to affect drastically or radically, as tastes, opinions, reputations, or systems.
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to defeat in competition, as in boxing or business.
verb (used without object)
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upends,
present (3rd person singular)
-
upended,
past participle, past
-
upending
present participle
-
to become upended.
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to place the body back-end up, as a dabbling duck.
verb
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to turn or set or become turned or set on end
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(tr) to affect or upset drastically
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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upendsimple
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upendssimple
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have upendedperfect
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has upendedperfect
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am upendingprogressive
-
are upendingprogressive
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is upendingprogressive
-
have been upendingperfect progressive
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has been upendingperfect progressive
Past
-
upendedsimple
-
had upendedperfect
-
was upendingprogressive
-
were upendingprogressive
-
had been upendingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of upend
Explanation
When you upend something, you flip it over or tip it on one side. Tell your sister you won't play checkers with her anymore if she continues to upend the board angrily every time she loses. To move the table from one room to another, you might have to upend it so it'll fit through the door, resting it on one end. The other way to upend something is to invert it, or turn it onto the opposite side, the way you upend a bottle of root beer over a glass or upend your school bag and shake the contents onto your bed to find that lost pack of gum.
Vocabulary lists containing upend
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Others at the town hall, however, expressed fury that the two remaining ranching families were now trying to upend the deal.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026
Lovers and ex-guerrillas Derlis Aizama and Daniel Paredes recently laid down arms to start a family, but Colombia's incoming hard-right administration might upend their improbable attempt at civilian life.
From Barron's ● Aug. 4, 2026
People retiring in reasonably good health “fail to account for how steeply healthcare expenses can climb in their late 70s and 80s. Long-term care alone can upend even a well-funded retirement plan,” Cox said.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026
In a world where artificial intelligence threatens to upend every facet of work and life, some things still remain sacred.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
Occasionally I have to help, but mostly I watch with detachment as they upend themselves in the mud, digging and weeding, clay stains on the knees of their pants.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
Jennifer Cowan, chief executive of Connections for Children, an agency that helps Westside and South Bay families navigate child-care options and subsidies, said losing spots upends family routines.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026
"It really upends a theory that says that symbolic rule induction is not possible without linguistic capacities," says Kean.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 11, 2026
The disaster upends U.S. plans to reap the benefits of an unlikely alliance that had opened up the world’s biggest oil reserves and vast mineral deposits to American investors.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
Oil traders tend to thrive in volatility that upends markets and threatens economies overnight.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 22, 2026
The assistant director picks up the bag and unties its throat and upends a wrapped bundle into his palm.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
Six years after the COVID-19 pandemic upended the world, experts in California say the disease appears to be becoming more of a summer rather than a winter phenomenon.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
Perched on the upended boat, he watched as passengers struggled to survive, unable to save them.
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
His existence is upended by a visit from an eccentric young man he discovers lurking outside his apartment in New York’s West Village.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
But whatever price structure it chooses could be upended if and when the large language model providers change their own pricing strategies.
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026
But Mattie’s death had upended me; I couldn’t get my footing.
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
Ford made their name with the micro-indie, micro-focused “Test Pattern,” an act of upending as it dissected an interracial relationship’s fault lines in a moment of crisis.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
Life has a way of upending even the best financial plans.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 23, 2026
New technologies are upending military doctrines on everything from procurement to executing operations, writes Yaroslav Trofimov.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
Do that enough, and climate change could be curtailed without upending the world as we know it.
From Salon ● Jun. 26, 2026
Or when that social worker had escorted him to his empty apartment to pack up a small bag of things, upending his life as yours had been upended, as mine had too.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
