upheave
Americanverb (used with object)
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to heave or lift up; raise up or aloft.
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to force or throw up violently or with much power, as an erupting volcano.
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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
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to heave or rise upwards
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geology to thrust (land) upwards or (of land) to be thrust upwards
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(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:
Miles—for though that speck in the sky into which they upheave their mighty altitudes, be doubtless an eagle, we cannot hear its cry.
From Recreations of Christopher North, Volume I (of 2) by Wilson, John Lyde
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
From the soil of slavery itself have sprung forth some of the most brilliant productions, whose logical levers will ultimately upheave and overthrow the system.
From Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, an American Slave, Written by Himself by Bibb, Henry
Then during the night they upheave their backs to relieve themselves of the pressure, and thus shake the walling to a fall.”’
From The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by Wentz, W. Y. Evans
The whole ocean about the island seemed to upheave.
From Tom Swift and His Wireless Message: or, the castaways of Earthquake island by Appleton, Victor [pseud.]
“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
"Seems as if it's goin' to be a hurricane," remarked old Andrew Clark, looking out across the upheaving waters.
From My Brave and Gallant Gentleman A Romance of British Columbia by Watson, Robert
In a radical upheaving the people demand eternal principles on which to stand.
From The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 2 of 2) Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From Her Contemporaries During Fifty Years by Harper, Ida Husted
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
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
"An island uphove by an earthquake," said I. "Great thunder!" he cried.
From Stories by English Authors: the Sea by Various
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 & Love Is Enough by Morris, William
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
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)
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.
