upheave
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to heave or lift up; raise up or aloft.
-
to force or throw up violently or with much power, as an erupting volcano.
-
to cause a major disturbance or disorder in.
The revolution upheaved the government, causing its leaders to flee the country.
verb (used without object)
verb
-
to heave or rise upwards
-
geology to thrust (land) upwards or (of land) to be thrust upwards
-
(tr) to disturb violently; throw into disorder
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of upheave
First recorded in 1250–1300, upheave is from the Middle English word upheven. See up-, heave
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:
There was a quick gliding movement, an upheave and a bump—and then—crash came one of the mighty rollers as before.
From A Veldt Vendetta by Mitford, Bertram
Others will upheave the blacksmith's hammer, or drive the plane over the carpenter's bench, or take the lapstone and the awl, and learn the trade of shoe-making.
From True Stories of History and Biography by Hawthorne, Nathaniel
The earth does not upheave itself from beneath the sea and add new land to that already above water in response to our need for it.
From The National Being Some Thoughts on an Irish Polity by Russell, George William
The Archimedian lever found a resting-place in his brain, and sundry of his thoughts seem not inapt to upheave the world.
From The International Monthly, Volume 4, No. 2, September, 1851 by Various
And give it only the fulcrum of Plymouth Rock an idea will upheave the continent.
From The American Union Speaker by Philbrick, John D. (John Dudley)
“If I had known, I’d have had a heart attack,” he said also, a reference to a point when things went especially upheaved.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 1, 2022
The 2014 shooting of Michael Brown upheaved many things in the U.S., including the career of DeRay Mckesson, who quit his job as an educator to become a full-time activist.
From Slate ● Sep. 11, 2018
Her well-to-do lifestyle is upheaved by news of her husband leaving her for another woman.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 29, 2017
He traces the origin of petroleum to volcanic disturbances which in early geological times upheaved the water and land surface of the earth and killed immense quantities of fish.
From Time Magazine Archive
We seem to be living through the biologic revolution, so far anyway, without being upheaved or even much disturbed by it.
From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas
But as other states have led the way in upheaving their systems, Washington has been slow to follow suit.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 23, 2022
The first time I came to Hammars, I was barely a year old and knew nothing about the great and upheaving love that had brought me there.
From The New Yorker ● Dec. 10, 2018
"A pretty considerable upheaving of the elements of social life, Mr. Grant," said he, upon encountering the old gentleman on Ferret's steps at the front door of The Hero.
From Quodlibet by Kennedy, John Pendleton
If the upheaving of the coast of Portugal had caused the retreat, the motion of the waters, when propagated to Madeira, would have produced a wave previous to the retreat.
From Principles of Geology or, The Modern Changes of the Earth and its Inhabitants Considered as Illustrative of Geology by Lyell, Charles, Sir
See the upheaving throes of the volcano that is rocking us in the consuming cradle of civil discord!
From Sages and Heroes of the American Revolution by Judson, L. Carroll
The fire, communicating with a powder magazine, produced an explosion which uphove the buildings like an earthquake, and prostrated more than a third of a mile of the city walls.
From The Empire of Russia by Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
Then with the sobbing grief he strove, For he saw his name thereon; And the heart within his breast uphove As the pen’s tale now he won.
From Poems By the Way by Morris, William
Vast showers of splinters of ice fell as if from the sky, and rained like arrows through the smoke, but if there were any great blocks uphove they did not touch the ship.
From The Frozen Pirate by Russell, W. Clark (William Clark)
It lay, a black mass, and whether it was a vast huddle of weeds, or a great whale killed by the earthquake, or solid land uphove by the volcanic rupture, was not conjecturable.
From Stories by English Authors: the Sea by Various
"An island uphove by an earthquake," said I. "Great thunder!" he cried.
From Stories by English Authors: the Sea by Various
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.
