one-upmanship
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
That kind of provocative behavior will lead to years, even a lifetime, of one-upmanship, backbiting and behind-the-scenes maneuvers.
From MarketWatch • Nov. 3, 2025
The resulting game of financial one-upmanship has tied the fates of the world’s biggest semiconductor and cloud companies—and vast swaths of the U.S. economy—to OpenAI, essentially making it too big to fail.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 21, 2025
The skyscape of this city is peppered with examples of architectural “I’ll go higher still” one-upmanship.
From BBC • Sep. 26, 2024
The NBA these past few weeks has featured an almost nightly display of one-upmanship among the game’s greatest scorers.
From Seattle Times • Jan. 10, 2023
Gunters loved to play the game of one-upmanship and were constantly trying to prove they had acquired more obscure knowledge than everyone else.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
From Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.
