Dictionary

upend en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• /ʌpˈɛnd/

Etymology

Etymology tree English up- Proto-Indo-European *h₂ent- Proto-Indo-European *h₂entíos Proto-Germanic *andijaz Proto-West Germanic *andī Old English ende Middle English ende English end English upend From up- + end.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To end up; to set on end.
2. (transitive) To tip or turn over.
   • When he upended the bottle of water over his sleeping sister, the lid popped off and surprised them both.
   • Venezuela, who introduced the exciting 17-year-old Samuel Sosa late on, pressed forward and eventually carved out a golden opportunity to level. Jake Clarke-Salter, the Chelsea defender, upended Peñaranda inside the box and after consulting the threesome of video officials inside the Suwon World Cup stadium, the referee, Bjorn Kuipers, pointed to the spot. 2017 June 11, Ben Fisher, “England seal Under-20 World Cup glory as Dominic Calvert-Lewin strikes”, in the Guardian:
   • upend the box and empty the contents
3. (figuratively, transitive) To destroy, invalidate, overthrow, or defeat.
   • What is unbearable, in fact, is the feeling, 13 years after 9/11, that America has been chasing its tail; that, in some whack-a-mole horror show, the quashing of a jihadi enclave here only spurs the sprouting of another there; that the ideology of Al Qaeda is still reverberating through a blocked Arab world whose Sunni-Shia balance (insofar as that went) was upended by the American invasion of Iraq. 2014 November 17, Roger Cohen, “The horror! The horror! The trauma of ISIS [print version: International New York Times, 18 November 2014, p. 9]”, in The New York Times:
   • The scientific evidence upended the popular myth.
   • James Meredith's forced admission was a milestone in upending the old order in America's most segregated state, a kind of race relations ground zero. 1997 May 4, Adam Nossiter, “Ground Zero”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
4. (figuratively, transitive) To affect or upset drastically.
   • Coral, another company trying to upend the salon industry, obtained $4.3 million in venture funding around the same time. But Bradley Leong, the company’s chief executive and co-founder, said that because they could not get the device’s price as low as they had hoped in its current iteration, they were making it semirobotic to decrease the cost. 2021 June 1, Ellen Rosen, “Want Your Nails Done? Let a Robot Do It.”, in The New York Times:
   • By the middle of March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic upended normal life for virtually all Americans.
   • At the same time, the labs themselves believe that their models will soon grow so advanced that they will upend nearly all industries, wiping out huge numbers of jobs. 2025 December 11, Charlie Campbell, Andrew R. Chow and Billy Perrigo, “The Architects of AI Are TIME’s 2025 Person of the Year”, in Time:
   • A week of public health reversals from the White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has left Americans with pandemic whiplash, sowing confusion about coronavirus vaccines and mask-wearing as the Delta variant upends what people thought they knew about how to stay safe. 2021 August 2, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Michael D. Shear, “Americans Suffer Pandemic Whiplash as Leaders Struggle With Changing Virus”, in The New York Times:

Forms

Deriveds

upender · upendable

Translations (68)

nl stop zetten (to end up; to set on end) · es poner patas arriba (to tip or turn over) · pl przewrócić do góry nogami (to tip or turn over) · bg преобръщам (to tip or turn over) · de hochkant stellen (to end up; to set on end) · kmr ruxandin (to destroy, invalidate) · pl kończyć (to end up; to set on end) · fi kumota (to destroy, invalidate) · ru сверга́ть (to destroy, invalidate) · es refutar (to destroy, invalidate) · pl obalać (to destroy, invalidate) · kmr perçiqandin (to destroy, invalidate) · es dar vuelta (to tip or turn over) · nl omkeren (to tip or turn over) · kmr qulipandin (to tip or turn over) · sv vända upp och ned på (to tip or turn over) · es desafiar (to destroy, invalidate) · de umstülpen (to tip or turn over) · fi panna kumolleen (to end up; to set on end) · ro întoarce (to tip or turn over) · fr bouleverser (to tip or turn over) · ru переворачивать (to tip or turn over) · fi kumota (to tip or turn over) · ru зака́нчивать (to end up; to set on end) · ru положить конец (to end up; to set on end) · bg поставям на ръб (to end up; to set on end) · sv ställa på ända (to end up; to set on end) · ru опровергать (to destroy, invalidate) · ro da peste cap (to tip or turn over) · pl obalić (to destroy, invalidate) · sv välta omkull (to tip or turn over) · nl omkiepen (to tip or turn over) · fi tuhota (to destroy, invalidate) · cs obrátit (to tip or turn over) · kmr hilweşandin (to destroy, invalidate) · sv kullkasta (to destroy, invalidate) · kmr şikandin (to destroy, invalidate) · fi kääntää ympäri (to tip or turn over) · de umkippen (to tip or turn over) · nl onderuithalen (to destroy, invalidate) · cs převrátit (to tip or turn over) · es voltear (to tip or turn over) · mi porohuri (to tip or turn over) · kmr bi dawî anîn (to end up; to set on end) · ru опрокидывать (to tip or turn over) · pl przewracać do góry nogami (to tip or turn over) · fi kellauttaa (to tip or turn over) · cs překlopit (to tip or turn over) · fi kumota (to end up; to set on end) · pl skończyć (to end up; to set on end) · fi tehdä loppu (to destroy, invalidate) · kmr serberjêr kirin (to tip or turn over) · cs otočit dnem vzhůru (to tip or turn over) · sv resa upp (to end up; to set on end) · sv ställa på högkant (to end up; to set on end) · fr verser (to tip or turn over) · sv vända (to tip or turn over) · sv vända på (to tip or turn over) · pt virar (to tip or turn over) · de zerstören (to destroy, invalidate) · fi mitätöidä (to destroy, invalidate) · de auf den Kopf stellen (to tip or turn over) · es poner vertical (to end up; to set on end) · fi tehdä tyhjäksi (to destroy, invalidate) · nl beëindigen (to end up; to set on end) · kmr qedandin (to end up; to set on end) · nl op zijn kop zetten (to tip or turn over) · es derribar (to destroy, invalidate)