upstart
Americannoun
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a person who has risen suddenly from a humble position to wealth, power, or a position of consequence.
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a presumptuous and objectionable person who has so risen; parvenu.
adjective
verb (used without object)
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upstarts,
present (3rd person singular)
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upstarted,
past participle, past
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upstarting
present participle
-
to spring into existence or into view.
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to start up; spring up, as to one's feet.
verb (used with object)
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upstarts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
upstarted,
past participle, past
-
upstarting
present participle
noun
-
-
a person, group, etc, that has risen suddenly to a position of power or wealth
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( as modifier )
an upstart tyrant
an upstart family
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-
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an arrogant or presumptuous person
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( as modifier )
his upstart ambition
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verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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upstartsimple
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upstartssimple
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have upstartedperfect
-
has upstartedperfect
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am upstartingprogressive
-
are upstartingprogressive
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is upstartingprogressive
-
have been upstartingperfect progressive
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has been upstartingperfect progressive
Past
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upstartedsimple
-
had upstartedperfect
-
was upstartingprogressive
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were upstartingprogressive
-
had been upstartingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of upstart
Explanation
An upstart is someone who's cocky and arrogant, and who doesn't show much respect for other people. There are many ways of starting up trouble — one is by being an upstart. Upstarts are people who are full of themselves and dismissive of others. Often, an upstart is a young person or newcomer. A new employee who acts like he knows more than everyone else is an upstart. An arrogant rookie on a sports team is an upstart. In the 1500s, upstart and start-up were both used to mean the same thing, "one newly risen in importance."
Vocabulary lists containing upstart
Hamilton
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Tolkien Reading Day, List 8
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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:
LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil says a lead investor has been secured to keep the upstart tour afloat, and the golfers will be majority equity holders.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
While still an upstart compared to AI giants OpenAI or Anthropic, Mistral says it is winning clients by offering models they can run themselves with their own data.
From Barron's ● Sep. 8, 2026
Americans buy more than $9 billion of frozen novelties a year, according to market-research firm Circana, up 20% over the past five years, with the growth driven by upstart brands like GoodPop, Yasso and JonnyPops.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 5, 2026
He said that polling conducted by upstart organizations is not necessarily bad, but that the people conducting it don’t necessarily have the training or expertise of more established outfits.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
“And the newspapers ran stories about the little upstart diva who stole the show. And that launched my career.”
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
Scale gives a massive edge to one-time upstarts like Vanguard.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
The design-software company has struggled to convince investors that its pricing model and artificial-intelligence offerings are enough to compete with cheaper upstarts, and Bank of America’s Tal Liani isn’t optimistic that sentiment will change.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 7, 2026
The man who shockingly demoted then-24-year-old goalkeeper Guillermo “Memo” Ochoa in favor of a more experienced player prior to the 2010 World Cup was now relying on upstarts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 2026
The debut of Spark, which Google announced at its annual developer’s conference Tuesday, comes as AI upstarts including Anthropic and OpenAI work to make their agents more capable of making choices without explicit human direction.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026
Because the least valued oil leases were offered first, the barons usually lingered in the back, leaving the initial bidding to upstarts.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
In an industry where guerrilla tactics pay off, Kahn upstarted the upstarts.
From Time Magazine Archive
With hands hard-clenched The King upstarted: thus his voice rang out: 'Beware, who gave ill counsel to their King!
From Legends of the Saxon Saints by Aubrey De Vere
Then labor came next, and the conflict began With monsters and beasts famed in song; And heroes upstarted, as rulers of man, And the weak sought the aid of the strong.
From The Poems of Schiller — Third period by Friedrich Schiller
Roused at one call, upstarted from one bed, Press’d in one crowd, appall’d with one amaze, He turns them o’er, Eternity! to thee.
From Young's Night Thoughts With Life, Critical Dissertation and Explanatory Notes by Edward Young
XLV From their seats upstarted the lords and all the band; The bear flew into fury; straight gave the king command The hounds to uncouple, and slip them on the prey.
From The Nibelungenlied Revised Edition by Unknown
At the sound, The knight, upstarting from his dreamy trance, High raised his vizor, and his bugle rang, Answering.
From The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles Vol. 2 by George Gilfillan
He seized the wooden sword, and smote the earth; When lo! upstarting into birth A fabric, gorgeous to behold, Outshone in elegance the old, And Veeshnoo saw, and cried, "Hail, playhouse mine!"
From Rejected Addresses by James Smith
The thrush, upstarting in the distant dell, Shook its brown wing, with golden streaks array’d, And ap’d the witch-notes, as they rose and fell.
From Romantic Ballads, Translated from the Danish; and Miscellaneous Pieces by George Henry Borrow
Then excuse me, we'll be parting, doleful fowl," I cried, upstarting; "Get thee back to—the Red River, or the Nile's sand-cumbered shore!
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 101, October 31, 1891 by Sir F. C. (Francis Cowley) Burnand
It was as if you saw a flame upstarting before you, waving tremulously here and there, but burning and resistless in its white heat.
From A Strange Disappearance by Anna Katharine Green
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.
