Synonyms of upending

upending

verb

present participle of upend

1

as in defeating

to achieve a victory over

the team won the division play-offs, but was upended in the final championship game

Synonyms & Similar Words

• defeating
• overcoming
• mastering
• taking
• beating
• dispatching
• conquering
• getting
• stopping
• subduing
• surmounting
• succeeding
• besting
• licking
• trimming
• overmatching
• prevailing (over)
• winning (against)
• triumphing (over)
• overbearing
• worsting
• sweeping
• burying
• getting the better of
• getting around
• crushing
• doing down
• finishing
• upsetting
• slaughtering
• surpassing
• skunking
• annihilating
• flattening
• exceeding
• clobbering
• scoring
• overwhelming
• capping
• whipping
• overthrowing
• breaking
• trouncing
• knocking for a loop
• topping
• routing
• subjugating
• transcending
• thrashing
• vanquishing
• excelling
• bombing
• flourishing
• unseating
• walloping
• creaming
• blowing out
• eclipsing
• edging (out)
• drubbing
• outdoing
• shellacking
• outstripping
• blowing away
• skinning
• nosing out
• outshining
• overpowering
• bettering
• outdistancing
• pipping
• smoking
• waxing
• knocking over
• outfighting
• overtopping
• knocking off
• snowing under
• acing (out)

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• losing (to)
• falling
• going down
• failing
• giving up
• collapsing
• folding
• going under
• flopping
• washing out
• flunking

2

as in erecting

to fix in an upright position

we had to upend the sofa in order to fit it into the elevator

Synonyms & Similar Words

• erecting
• raising
• lifting
• rearing
• hoisting
• pitching
• elevating
• setting up
• bracing
• upholding
• supporting
• putting up
• upraising
• buttressing
• upping
• heightening
• uplifting
• craning
• propping (up)
• hiking
• boosting
• shoring (up)
• heaving
• hefting
• jacking (up)
• picking up
• perking (up)

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• flattening
• leveling
• demolishing
• tearing down
• razing
• knocking down

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of upending

Adrift Buendía Estudios Canarias, Boomerang TV, Atresmedia Five fishermen, who are presumed dead, return home two years later, upending the lives their wives had rebuilt without them. — Emiliano De Pablos, Variety, 11 Oct. 2026

This is important to me, because as much as these tech companies claim to be upending everything with AI and claiming extraordinarily special privileges as a result, there is still legal gravity constraining them. — James Folta, Literary Hub, 8 Oct. 2026

The United States joined Israel in attacking Iran’s military and nuclear program in two rounds, battering Iran and upending global markets far from the battlefield. — Melanie Lidman, Los Angeles Times, 7 Oct. 2026

For the Brotherhood, Rabaa became the defining catastrophe of its post-2013 political memory, upending its organization, self-conception, and belief in its own permanence. — Abdelrahman Elgendy, Time, 6 Oct. 2026

And Sasha Tkachenko, head of studio at My Drama by Holywater Tech, predicted that the technology would also play an increasing role in microdramas and vertical content in general, without upending traditional skills completely. — Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 2 Oct. 2026

Trump repeatedly attacked Warsh's predecessor, Jerome Powell, in harshly personal terms, upending decades of tradition in which presidents treated the Fed as independent. — ABC News, 15 Sep. 2026

The closure caused travel chaos across the world, upending travelers’ plans with thousands of flights affected. — Sana Noor Haq, CNN Money, 9 Sep. 2026

Taken together, Wall Street research doesn’t describe a technology upending the old order. — Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 8 Sep. 2026