rely on/upon

phrasal verb

relied on/upon; relying on/upon; relies on/upon

1

: to need (someone or something) for support, help, etc. : to depend on (someone or something)

My mother relied on me for financial support.

They rely on a well for all their water.

2

: to trust or believe (someone or something)

She's someone you can rely on.

I relied heavily upon your advice.

You could always rely on him to disagree.

3

: to expect (something) with confidence : to be certain that (something) will happen or exist

The economy may improve next year, but it's not something you can rely on.

Examples of rely on/upon in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

And although a number of the Florida charges, involving obstruction and making false statements, seem clear-cut, thirty-two counts rely on the Espionage Act, a statute with gray areas that have never been fully adjudicated by the Supreme Court, even without a former President as the defendant. —Amy Davidson Sorkin, The New Yorker, 14 Apr. 2024

The disaster led directly to the decision to end the broader NASA space shuttle program, forcing the US space agency to rely on Russia for rides to space — one of myriad ways Columbia altered history. —Jackie Wattles, CNN, 13 Apr. 2024

And to be able to rely on having a full battery on your phone, a portable charger is nonnegotiable. —Andrea Navarro, Glamour, 12 Apr. 2024

Congress has been odds over funding for Ukraine, leading Biden to rely on his authority to take weapons from U.S. stocks in an emergency to get assistance to the Eastern European nation. —Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald, 12 Apr. 2024

Ersparmer believes light and noise pollution will take away from the outdoor experience, hurting businesses that rely on tourism. —Caitlin Looby, Journal Sentinel, 10 Apr. 2024

But prison policy has prohibited videotaping the hearings, including sign language translations that some deaf prisoners rely on to understand the proceedings. —Don Thompson, Sacramento Bee, 9 Apr. 2024

True to their name, TENGs rely on the triboelectric effect: If one material rubs across another, electric charge can transfer from one to the other. —IEEE Spectrum, 9 Apr. 2024

The following rankings rely on a series of assumptions about NBA Draft decisions and, of course, transfer portal movement. —Jon Wilner, The Mercury News, 8 Apr. 2024