upsetting

Verb

upset (third-person singular simple present upsets, present participle upsetting, simple past and past participle upset)

1. (transitive) To make (a person) angry, distressed, or unhappy.
   • I’m sure the bad news will upset him, but he needs to know.

   Synonyms:

   anger, distress, forset, sadden, affront, aggravate, antagonize, awrath, burn up, cheese off

2. (transitive) To disturb, disrupt or adversely alter (something).
   • Introducing a foreign species can upset the ecological balance.

   Synonyms:

   disrupt, disturb, forset, turn upside down, upend, derange

3. (transitive) To tip or overturn (something).
   • But this argument, which first Anaxagoras and later Eudoxus and certain others used, is very easily upset; for it is not difficult to collect many insuperable objections to such a view.1924, W. D. Ross translator, Aristitle, Metaphysics, Book 1, Part 9, The Classical Library, Nashotah, Wisconsin, 2001.

   Synonyms:

   invert, overturn, forset, tip, tip over, tip up, turn over, turn upside down, upend

4. (transitive) To defeat unexpectedly.
   • Truman upset Dewey in the 1948 US presidential election.

   Synonyms:

   upend

5. (intransitive) To be upset or knocked over.
   • The carriage upset when the horse bolted.
6. (obsolete) To set up; to put upright.
   • with sail on mast upset

   Synonyms:

   redress, right, stand

See all 18 meanings of upset