one-upmanship
noun
one-up·man·ship
ˌwən-ˈəp-mən-ˌship 
variants
or less commonly one-upsmanship
: the art or practice of outdoing or keeping one jump ahead of a friend or competitor
engaged in a round of verbal one-upmanship
Examples of one-upmanship in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
In the game of one-upmanship, where brands lock in stars to exclusively attend their shows, Jonathan Anderson’s team consistently pulls it out of the bag by scoring nostalgic yet contemporary lineups that cause even the most hardened editors to crane their necks iPhones.
—
Alice Newbold, Glamour, 1 Mar. 2024
Ruffin does nail some sly bits of jostling banter and one-upmanship among Dorothy’s crew that makes the characters feel a little more real.
—Karen D'souza, The Mercury News, 22 Jan. 2024
See-Through Screens Photograph: Alex Welsh No one does one-upmanship better than Samsung and LG, especially at CES.
—Ryan Waniata, WIRED, 11 Jan. 2024
The story, though, once again catches you up in the comic vision of a teen culture that’s now a conspiracy of vindictive one-upmanship.
—Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 10 Jan. 2024
The platform has become a battleground of one-upmanship, where excess is rewarded.
—Johan Moreno, Forbes, 27 Nov. 2023
Amazon’s The Boys has spent three years playing a game of one-upmanship, initially taking the somewhat fatigued superhero genre out behind the woodshed with layers of corporate satire, increasingly salty and nihilistic language and tidal waves of bodily fluids.
—Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Sep. 2023
But threatening to beat the pulp out of each other represents a new – if not bizarre – form of one-upmanship for the two men.
—Kristen Barber, Fortune, 17 Aug. 2023
Ronda Kaysen recently wrote about a kind of one-upmanship born out of the pandemic: gloating over mortgage rates.
—Josh Ocampo, New York Times, 6 Aug. 2023
Alice Newbold, Glamour, 1 Mar. 2024
Ruffin does nail some sly bits of jostling banter and one-upmanship among Dorothy’s crew that makes the characters feel a little more real.
—Karen D'souza, The Mercury News, 22 Jan. 2024
See-Through Screens Photograph: Alex Welsh No one does one-upmanship better than Samsung and LG, especially at CES.
—Ryan Waniata, WIRED, 11 Jan. 2024
The story, though, once again catches you up in the comic vision of a teen culture that’s now a conspiracy of vindictive one-upmanship.
—Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 10 Jan. 2024
The platform has become a battleground of one-upmanship, where excess is rewarded.
—Johan Moreno, Forbes, 27 Nov. 2023
Amazon’s The Boys has spent three years playing a game of one-upmanship, initially taking the somewhat fatigued superhero genre out behind the woodshed with layers of corporate satire, increasingly salty and nihilistic language and tidal waves of bodily fluids.
—Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Sep. 2023
But threatening to beat the pulp out of each other represents a new – if not bizarre – form of one-upmanship for the two men.
—Kristen Barber, Fortune, 17 Aug. 2023
Ronda Kaysen recently wrote about a kind of one-upmanship born out of the pandemic: gloating over mortgage rates.
—Josh Ocampo, New York Times, 6 Aug. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'one-upmanship.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“One-upmanship.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/one-upmanship. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
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