upstage
/ʌpˈsteɪd͡ʒ/
upstage noun: the part of a stage that is farthest from the audience or camera.
Noun
upstage (uncountable)
Adverb
upstage (comparative more upstage, superlative most upstage)
- Toward or at the rear of a theatrical stage.
- The actor turned and walked upstage.
- Away from the audience or camera.
Adjective
upstage (comparative more upstage, superlative most upstage)
- At the rear of a stage.
- The minimalist play used no upstage scenery.
- Haughty, aloof.
- If she hasn't time for this or that, if she refuses to make or keep appointments, if her face does not greet all comers with a sweet and charming smile, then the word is passed around that ‘So-and-So is getting high-hat and up-stage.’1929 December, Betty Boone, “The Price of this Stardom”, in Screenland, page 22
- Synonyms:
- airy, arrogant, chesty, authoritarian, biggity, big-headed, blustery, turgescent, boastful, lordly
Verb
upstage (third-person singular simple present upstages, present participle upstaging, simple past and past participle upstaged)
- To draw attention away from others, especially on-stage.
- She only wore that dress to upstage everyone.
- Although constantly upstaged by Miss Moore's vocal flings, Cary Grant brought the appropriate note of light comedy to his role.1973, Jerry Vermilye, Cary Grant, New York: Galahad Books, →ISBN, page 56
- Synonyms:
- eclipse, overshadow
- To force other actors to face away from the audience by staying upstage.
- To treat snobbishly.
- To restage upward; to restage (a case of a disease, usually a cancer) to a higher stage than that found at last assessment.
- Almost one-third of patients were upstaged after re-exploration, three-quarters of whom actually had stage III disease.1999, “Mismanagement of ovarian cancer by laparoscopy and laparotomy”, in Laparoscopic surgery in gynaecological oncology, Blackwell Science, →ISBN
- Antonyms:
- downstage
upstage meaning in Kannada
upstage in Kannada
- ವೇದಿಕೆಯ ಹಿಂಭಾಗದ, ನೇಪಥ್ಯದ
Examples of upstage in a sentence
- Ronald Reagan’s peace plan for Nicaragua, which would have worked to his domestic political advantage even if it had failed, is upstaged by a surprise initiative by five Central American countries.1987 August 17, “Peace Moves”, in Newsweek, volume 60, number 7, page 1:
- The romance and spectacle of the Olympics have been upstaged by the reality of the Olympics; both the Summer Games and the Winter Games are now as much big business as they are sport.1996, Dave Anderson, The story of the Olympics, New York: W. Morrow, →ISBN, page 10:
Synonyms of upstage
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- bombastic
- cocky
- conceited
- disdainful
- domineering
- egotistical
- entitled
- flaunting
- full of oneself
- grandiose
- hankty
- haughty
- high-handed
- high-hat
- high and mighty
- highfalutin
- hoity-toity
- holier-than-thou
- hubristic
- hubristical
- imperious
- inflated
- insolent
- la-di-da
- ostentatious
- overbearing
- overweening
- pompous
- presumptuous
- pretentious
Antonyms
Forms of upstage
| Adverb | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more upstage |
| superlative | most upstage |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more upstage |
| superlative | most upstage |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | upstages |
| present participle | upstaging |
| past participle | upstaged |
| past | upstaged |
Origin of upstage
From up- + stage. The figurative uses “haughty” and “to draw attention away” derive from actors moving to a higher and thus more visible position on a sloped stage.
Words formed from upstage
Words that rhyme with upstage
Questions about upstage
- What does upstage mean?
- Upstage means the part of a stage that is farthest from the audience or camera.
- What is upstage in Kannada?
- Upstage in Kannada is ವೇದಿಕೆಯ ಹಿಂಭಾಗದ, ನೇಪಥ್ಯದ. See Upstage meaning in Kannada.
- How do you use upstage in a sentence?
- Ronald Reagan’s peace plan for Nicaragua, which would have worked to his domestic political advantage even if it had failed, is upstaged by a surprise initiative by five Central American countries.
- What part of speech is upstage?
- Upstage can be a noun, an adverb, an adjective or a verb.
- How do you pronounce upstage?
- Upstage is pronounced /ʌpˈsteɪd͡ʒ/.
Words near upstage in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: upstage (page history and authors); upstage (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-upstage.ogg, en-au-upstage.ogg.
Cite this entry: “upstage.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/upstage. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.