"one-upmanship" meaning in English

See one-upmanship in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /(ˌ)wʌnˈʌpmənʃɪp/ [Received-Pronunciation], /wənˈəpmənˌʃɪp/ [General-American] Audio: en-au-one-upmanship.ogg [Australia] Forms: one-upmanships [plural]
Etymology: one-up + -manship, probably modelled after gamesmanship. Etymology templates: {{suffix|en|one up|manship|alt1=one-up}} one-up + -manship, {{m|en|gamesmanship}} gamesmanship Head templates: {{en-noun}} one-upmanship (plural one-upmanships)
  1. The art or practice of successively outdoing a competitor. Translations (art or practice of outdoing an opponent): přečurávaní [neuter] (Czech), snaha prosadit se na úkor ostatních (Czech), course à l’échalote [feminine] (French), surenchère [feminine] (French), superioridade [feminine] (Galician), konsten att platta till (english: has to be explained) (Swedish)
    Sense id: en-one-upmanship-en-noun-aJym7Iq2 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English terms suffixed with -manship Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 85 15 Disambiguation of English terms suffixed with -manship: 79 21 Disambiguation of 'art or practice of outdoing an opponent': 80 20
  2. A succession of instances of outdoing a competitor.
    Sense id: en-one-upmanship-en-noun-FDGW5k2z
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: one-upsmanship, one-up-manship, oneupmanship Derived forms: one-upwomanship Related terms: one-downmanship, brinksmanship, gamesmanship, one up

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for one-upmanship meaning in English (5.6kB)

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "one-upwomanship"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "one up",
        "3": "manship",
        "alt1": "one-up"
      },
      "expansion": "one-up + -manship",
      "name": "suffix"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "gamesmanship"
      },
      "expansion": "gamesmanship",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "one-up + -manship, probably modelled after gamesmanship.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "one-upmanships",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "one-upmanship (plural one-upmanships)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "one-up‧man‧ship"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "one-downmanship"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "brinksmanship"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "gamesmanship"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "one up"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "85 15",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "79 21",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms suffixed with -manship",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "They are focused on one-upmanship, which is the essence of a competitive spirit.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1981, Shahram Chubin, editor, Security in the Persian Gulf I: Domestic Political Factors (IISS Special Series; I), Montclair, N.J.: Published for the International Institute for Strategic Studies by Allanheld, Osmun & Co. Publishers, pages 29–30",
          "text": "[V]arious emirates wanted their own ‘international’ airport, then an ‘international’ harbour, then cement factories, then container ports, then petro-chemical plants, then skyscraper hotels and, most recently, ‘international’ trade centres. […] The impetus for these projects continues to be ‘one-upmanship’ and inter-emirate competition for commercial pre-eminence and regional prestige. […] Outsiders, anxious to win lucrative contracts, have consistently taken advantage of these features of competitive one-upmanship among the UAE member states.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1991, Cliff McKnight, Andrew Dillon, John Richardson, “How Did We Get Here?”, in Hypertext in Context, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, page 6",
          "text": "Rather than indulge in historical oneupmanship – who knows, maybe the scratchings around the cave paintings were the first primitive hypertext links? – we will begin our brief overview of the history of hypertext in the same era as the birth of the technology which supports it.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The art or practice of successively outdoing a competitor."
      ],
      "id": "en-one-upmanship-en-noun-aJym7Iq2",
      "links": [
        [
          "successively",
          "successively"
        ],
        [
          "outdo",
          "outdo"
        ],
        [
          "competitor",
          "competitor"
        ]
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "80 20",
          "code": "cs",
          "lang": "Czech",
          "sense": "art or practice of outdoing an opponent",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "přečurávaní"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "80 20",
          "code": "cs",
          "lang": "Czech",
          "sense": "art or practice of outdoing an opponent",
          "word": "snaha prosadit se na úkor ostatních"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "80 20",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "art or practice of outdoing an opponent",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "course à l’échalote"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "80 20",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "art or practice of outdoing an opponent",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "surenchère"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "80 20",
          "code": "gl",
          "lang": "Galician",
          "sense": "art or practice of outdoing an opponent",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "superioridade"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "80 20",
          "code": "sv",
          "english": "has to be explained",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "art or practice of outdoing an opponent",
          "word": "konsten att platta till"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1965, Max Gluckman, “Foreword”, in M[axwell] G[ay] Marwick, Sorcery in Its Social Setting: A Study of the Northern Rhodesian Ceŵa, Manchester: Published by the University of Manchester at the University Press, →OCLC, page v",
          "text": "I think all readers will be impressed by the manner in which Marwick places his own analysis in relation to previous studies both of sorcery and of conflict in general. His punctiliousness here contrasts sharply with the practice of some anthropologists who, in a contest of one-upmanship, score points either by ignoring earlier work or even by baldly asserting that it was all wrong."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002, John Patrick Daly, “The Evangelical Vision of the South and Its Future”, in When Slavery was Called Freedom: Evangelicalism, Proslavery, and the Causes of the Civil War (Religion in the South), Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky, page 73",
          "text": "Even these debates rarely constituted an exchange of ideas; they more resembled a contest of sectional champions, or a game of righteous, intellectual, and regional one-upsmanship.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A succession of instances of outdoing a competitor."
      ],
      "id": "en-one-upmanship-en-noun-FDGW5k2z",
      "links": [
        [
          "succession",
          "succession"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/(ˌ)wʌnˈʌpmənʃɪp/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/wənˈəpmənˌʃɪp/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-au-one-upmanship.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/82/En-au-one-upmanship.ogg/En-au-one-upmanship.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/En-au-one-upmanship.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "one-upsmanship"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "one-up-manship"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "oneupmanship"
    }
  ],
  "word": "one-upmanship"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English 4-syllable words",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms suffixed with -manship",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with audio links"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "one-upwomanship"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "one up",
        "3": "manship",
        "alt1": "one-up"
      },
      "expansion": "one-up + -manship",
      "name": "suffix"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "gamesmanship"
      },
      "expansion": "gamesmanship",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "one-up + -manship, probably modelled after gamesmanship.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "one-upmanships",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "one-upmanship (plural one-upmanships)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "one-up‧man‧ship"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "one-downmanship"
    },
    {
      "word": "brinksmanship"
    },
    {
      "word": "gamesmanship"
    },
    {
      "word": "one up"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "They are focused on one-upmanship, which is the essence of a competitive spirit.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1981, Shahram Chubin, editor, Security in the Persian Gulf I: Domestic Political Factors (IISS Special Series; I), Montclair, N.J.: Published for the International Institute for Strategic Studies by Allanheld, Osmun & Co. Publishers, pages 29–30",
          "text": "[V]arious emirates wanted their own ‘international’ airport, then an ‘international’ harbour, then cement factories, then container ports, then petro-chemical plants, then skyscraper hotels and, most recently, ‘international’ trade centres. […] The impetus for these projects continues to be ‘one-upmanship’ and inter-emirate competition for commercial pre-eminence and regional prestige. […] Outsiders, anxious to win lucrative contracts, have consistently taken advantage of these features of competitive one-upmanship among the UAE member states.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1991, Cliff McKnight, Andrew Dillon, John Richardson, “How Did We Get Here?”, in Hypertext in Context, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, page 6",
          "text": "Rather than indulge in historical oneupmanship – who knows, maybe the scratchings around the cave paintings were the first primitive hypertext links? – we will begin our brief overview of the history of hypertext in the same era as the birth of the technology which supports it.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The art or practice of successively outdoing a competitor."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "successively",
          "successively"
        ],
        [
          "outdo",
          "outdo"
        ],
        [
          "competitor",
          "competitor"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1965, Max Gluckman, “Foreword”, in M[axwell] G[ay] Marwick, Sorcery in Its Social Setting: A Study of the Northern Rhodesian Ceŵa, Manchester: Published by the University of Manchester at the University Press, →OCLC, page v",
          "text": "I think all readers will be impressed by the manner in which Marwick places his own analysis in relation to previous studies both of sorcery and of conflict in general. His punctiliousness here contrasts sharply with the practice of some anthropologists who, in a contest of one-upmanship, score points either by ignoring earlier work or even by baldly asserting that it was all wrong."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002, John Patrick Daly, “The Evangelical Vision of the South and Its Future”, in When Slavery was Called Freedom: Evangelicalism, Proslavery, and the Causes of the Civil War (Religion in the South), Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky, page 73",
          "text": "Even these debates rarely constituted an exchange of ideas; they more resembled a contest of sectional champions, or a game of righteous, intellectual, and regional one-upsmanship.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A succession of instances of outdoing a competitor."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "succession",
          "succession"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/(ˌ)wʌnˈʌpmənʃɪp/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/wənˈəpmənˌʃɪp/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-au-one-upmanship.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/82/En-au-one-upmanship.ogg/En-au-one-upmanship.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/En-au-one-upmanship.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "one-upsmanship"
    },
    {
      "word": "one-up-manship"
    },
    {
      "word": "oneupmanship"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cs",
      "lang": "Czech",
      "sense": "art or practice of outdoing an opponent",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "přečurávaní"
    },
    {
      "code": "cs",
      "lang": "Czech",
      "sense": "art or practice of outdoing an opponent",
      "word": "snaha prosadit se na úkor ostatních"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "art or practice of outdoing an opponent",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "course à l’échalote"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "art or practice of outdoing an opponent",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "surenchère"
    },
    {
      "code": "gl",
      "lang": "Galician",
      "sense": "art or practice of outdoing an opponent",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "superioridade"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "english": "has to be explained",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "art or practice of outdoing an opponent",
      "word": "konsten att platta till"
    }
  ],
  "word": "one-upmanship"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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