put-upon
Americanadjective
verb
-
to presume on (a person's generosity, good nature, etc); take advantage of
he's always being put upon
-
to impose hardship on; maltreat
Etymology
Origin of put-upon
First recorded in 1915–20
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.
He’s as put-upon as the rest of us.
From Salon • May 24, 2025
But however put-upon we may feel, our kids' failure to overtly and regularly praise us for our maternal virtues is nothing beside the societal lack of appreciation for some of the animal kingdom's great mothers.
From Salon • May 11, 2025
She could be sweet, evil, overbearing, put-upon, thoughtful, impulsive, girlish, vulnerable or manipulative and superimpose selected qualities for extra complexity, always with a compressed energy, obvious or veiled.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 30, 2024
His character Alejandro desperately needs someone to sponsor his work visa, and he thinks he may have found that person in Tilda Swinton’s Elizabeth, a caustic, put-upon art critic.
From Seattle Times • Mar. 5, 2024
Unable to work either the dishwater or Methuselah’s long memory into a proper ending for his parable, Our Father merely looked at us all and heaved the great sigh of the put-upon male.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
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.
