UPSET • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Upset

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/əpsˈɛt/ /ˈəpsˌɛt/ Listen

adjective

Upset adj. Set up; fixed; determined; used chiefly or only in the phrase upset price; that is, the price fixed upon as the minimum for property offered in a public sale, or, in an auction, the price at which property is set up or started by the auctioneer, and the lowest price at which it will be sold. "After a solemn pause, Mr. Glossin offered the upset price for the lands and barony of Ellangowan."

verb

Upset v. t. (past & past part. upset; pres. part. upsetting)

To set up; to put upright. (Obs.) "With sail on mast upset."

(a)

To thicken and shorten, as a heated piece of iron, by hammering on the end.

(b)

To shorten (a tire) in the process of resetting, originally by cutting it and hammering on the ends.

To overturn, overthrow, or overset; as, to upset a carriage; to upset an argument. "Determined somehow to upset the situation."

To disturb the self-possession of; to disorder the nerves of; to make ill; as, the fright upset her. (Colloq.)

(Basketwork) To turn upwards the outer ends of (stakes) so as to make a foundation for the side of a basket or the like; also, to form (the side) in this manner.

Upset v. i. (past & past part. upset; pres. part. upsetting) To become upset.

noun

Upset n. The act of upsetting, or the state of being upset; an overturn; as, the wagon had an upset.

See images of 'Upset'

Etymology of 'Upset'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Upset" Quotes from Famous Books

... Either mood was unpleasing to him: it contained tacit reproach for his separateness. Then, there were still occasionally evenings when he came home to find her windows darkened and everything in the household upset and forlorn; when every footfall must be adjusted to her ear—that ear that had strained and ached for his coming. Her whole day culminated in that poor, meager half-hour in which he sat by her, and in which her personality hardly reached him until he kissed her, on leaving, with a quick, ...

— McClure's Magazine, Vol. 31, No. 1, May 1908 • Various

... bay whose terminating headlands were invisible. I accordingly decided to make S.W. by W. to cross it, but, in doing so, I was hardly out of sight of land, when a northern storm overtook me toward midnight; before I could think, the little sail was all but whiffed away, and the kayak upset. I only saved it by the happy chance of being near a floe with an ice-foot, which, projecting under the water, gave me foot-hold; and I lay on the floe in a mooning state the whole night under the storm, for I was ...

— The Purple Cloud • M.P. Shiel

... night, a man in evening dress can enter almost any house. When I returned I carried my bag with me, as I did not know how I might wish to get away subsequently. I saw the preparations for the ball. They helped me. David Hume's unexpected appearance at midnight upset my plans. Waiting near the gate, I witnessed Alan's meeting with a girl in a white dress. Whilst they were talking, I ran up to the house and found David asleep in the library. I resolved to act boldly. Even he would not know what to do if he suddenly discovered another ...

— The Stowmarket Mystery - Or, A Legacy of Hate • Louis Tracy

... not quite an upset. But the two leaders were lying flat. The booted postilions had got down, and two servants who seemed very much at sea in such matters, were by way of assisting them. A pretty little bonnet and head were popped out of the window of the carriage in distress. Its tournure, and that of ...

— The Room in the Dragon Volant • J. Sheridan Le Fanu

... is on the spot, is desired to petition the Lords of Trade for this Island." Capt. Falconer intended to have gone to the River St. John to assist in the management of affairs there, but this plan was upset by his being ordered with his ...

— Glimpses of the Past - History of the River St. John, A.D. 1604-1784 • W. O. Raymond

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