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
• topping
• knocking for a loop
• routing
• subjugating
• transcending
• thrashing
• excelling
• vanquishing
• 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

Baseball has a way of upending logical assumptions. — Tyler Kepner, New York Times, 24 June 2026

Russia suspended jet fuel exports, further upending trade in a product already hugely affected by the Iran war. — Prashant Rao, semafor.com, 2 June 2026

Forces — some visible, some harder to see — are upending literature and education itself. — Los Angeles Times, 1 July 2026

In the first movie, Woody has to overcome his fear that Buzz will replace him (a sly metacommentary by a studio that was itself upending the animation industry). — Jacob Stern, The Atlantic, 17 June 2026

Investors’ fears of Anthropic’s Mythos model, which was launched in April, upending all cybersecurity software businesses, have since subsided. — Kirk Ogunrinde, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026

Moreover, Iran alienated several of its neighbors in the Gulf by launching retaliatory attacks against them and upending regional trade through the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. — Miranda Jeyaretnam, Time, 3 July 2026

Iran attacked a cargo ship traveling through the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, possibly upending President Donald Trump‘s diplomatic end to the war with Iran. — Christian Datoc, The Washington Examiner, 25 June 2026

The mayor's goal was to make things easier for the city's immigrant delivery workforce by upending a policy that had been put in pace by NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch. — Marcia Kramer, CBS News, 25 June 2026