Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use upend in a sentence

24 example sentences · verb

Upend means to end up; to set on end. Example: “When he upended the bottle of water over his sleeping sister, the lid popped off and surprised them both.”

Examples of upend by meaning

verbTo tip or turn over.

  • When he upended the bottle of water over his sleeping sister, the lid popped off and surprised them both.
  • upend the box and empty the contents
  • 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

verbTo destroy, invalidate, overthrow, or defeat.

  • 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

verbTo affect or upset drastically.

  • By the middle of March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic upended normal life for virtually all Americans.
  • Coral, another company trying to upend the salon industry, obtained $4.3 million in venture funding around the same time.2021 June 1, Ellen Rosen, “Want Your Nails Done? Let a Robot Do It.”, in The New York Times
  • 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

More sentences with upend

  • Faster than a speeding bit, the internet upended media and entertainment companies.2013 August 17, “Pennies streaming from heaven”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8849. From the entry fast
  • That little upended trash can is the Elmo of Star Wars.2012 July 13, Esther Inglis-Arkell, “10 Robots With Good Reasons to Rise Up Against Humanity”, in Gizmodo, archived from the original on…. From the entry elmo
  • Now their faster, cheaper successors are upending it.2021 February 6, Rachel Monroe, “Ultra-fast Fashion Is Eating the World”, in The Atlantic. From the entry ultra-fast fashion
  • De-centered, Trumpish times — when every social norm seems to have been upended — have given Lipsyte plenty of satirical fodder.2019 January 11, Mark Athitakis, “Sam Lipsyte’s ‘Hark’ satirizes hucksters and the schlubs who love them”, in Los Angeles Times, Los…. From the entry meme-speak
  • Palmer their Sunday cappuccinos, and Grady’s flusteriness has almost made me upend coffee all over my new swing dress.2014, Melissa Keil, chapter 1, in The Incredible Adventures of Cinnamon Girl, Atlanta, Ga.: Peachtree Publishers, published 2016, →ISBN…. From the entry flusteriness
  • She'd hop around, resniff the smell from different angles, then take a tentative swipe at it, upending a dollop of turf.2010, Alexandra Horowitz, Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know, →ISBN. From the entry resniff
  • Haron's howling came later that afternoon, as she was upended for a bare-bottomed, open-air, OTK spanking on the Mull of Kintyre.2008, Abel and Haron, The Spanking Writers. From the entry OTK
  • Willing to upend the nation’s postwar role as a bulwark against authoritarianism, he promises to usher in a foreign policy rooted in “America First” transactionalism.2024 December 12, Eric Cortellessa, “Donald Trump 2024 TIME Person of the Year”, in Time, archived from the original on 22 Dec 2024. From the entry bulwark
  • Meanwhile the steam crane would have already have upended the wheels and axle with the wheel to be retyred at the lowest point.2013, Alan Davies, Walkden Yard and the Lancashire Central Railways Colliery Locomotives. From the entry retyre
  • The ideal candidate for a makeunder does all three of these simultaneously, mostly likely while upending a bottle of perfume into her cleavage.2011 October 18, Anna Lefler, The Chicktionary: From A-line to Z-snap, the words every woman should know, Adams Media, →ISBN, page 122. From the entry makeunder
  • The decision upended state and national politics in a key swing state and brought new attention to so-called zombie laws — long-unenforced statutes that remain on the books.2024 April 23, Alicia Bannon, “Arizona Highlights Risk of “Zombie” Laws”, in State Court Report. From the entry unenforced
  • Shares in the education sector fell sharply on Tuesday as investors bet that artificial intelligence could upend business models following a revenue warning at edtech company Chegg.2023 May 2, Bethan Staton, “Shares in education companies fall sharply after warning over ChatGPT”, in Financial Times. From the entry edtech
  • The notion that European exploration of South America upended some Edenesque paradise is deeply flawed and something we will be looking at later on in the book.2021, Otto English, Fake History, page 64. From the entry Edenesque
  • Walcott was, briefly, awarded a penalty when he was upended in the box but referee Phil Dowd reversed his decision because Bendtner had been flagged offside.2011 January 8, Chris Bevan, “Arsenal 1 - 1 Leeds”, in BBC. From the entry flag
  • And as effortlessly as a drunken gunslinger sweeps a bartop full of shot glasses onto the saloon floor, the wind upended all the potted plants on the porch.2007 January 4, Michelle Slatalla, “Accessorizing at the Buena Vista Scrabble Club”, in New York Times. From the entry bartop
  • This impulse for participation has upended the economy and is steadily turning the sphere of social networking – smart mobs, hive minds, and collaborative action – into the main event.2005 August 1, Kevin Kelly, “We Are the Web”, in Wired, San Francisco, Calif.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the…. From the entry smart mob

Meaning of upend

  1. verb To end up; to set on end.
  2. verb To tip or turn over.
  3. verb To destroy, invalidate, overthrow, or defeat.

Full definition of upend

Questions about upend in a sentence

How do you use upend in a sentence?
Upend is used as a verb. For example: “When he upended the bottle of water over his sleeping sister, the lid popped off and surprised them both.”
What is a short sentence with upend?
“The scientific evidence upended the popular myth.”
What does upend mean?
Upend means to end up; to set on end.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: upend (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use upend in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/upend. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.