‘you're always trying to be one up on whoever you're with’
‘The first half produced very little to get excited about and in truth Wrexham should have been at least one up.’
‘On the basis that more people drink Guinness than Bass, then he's already one up on Bertie.’
‘But on the back of a motorbike you are one up from the scum on the street.’
‘Incidentally, if you live in Stirling you get into the castle free, which is one up on the citizens of Edinburgh.’
‘Louise covered my tracks and I got a hug from Sondheim, which in my book is one up on a French kiss from Mozart.’
‘Sweetshops around the city have pulled out all stops in trying to go one up on their rivals.’
‘He has one up on Jack when it comes to clear insight and common sense.’
‘Conceding two goals after being one up with less than five minutes to go is not easy to take.’
‘Can anyone believe if it were said that the latter has come one up against the former.’
‘The ladies on the stage were seen by some as one up from prostitutes - that was the view then.’
verb
informal
with objectGain an advantage over.
‘he deftly one-upped the interrogator’
‘When we last saw Tommy, he was figuring out how his Auburn Tigers could one-up the party in Miami and gain a split national championship with some well-timed posturing and pleading after his little tryst with Frank in New Orleans.’
‘‘Yeah, too bad it didn't win’ said Kate, taking advantage of her opportunity to one-up Holly’
‘Man, just when I thought I'd done a decent job of promoting the blogosphere, Pejman one-ups me.’
‘The program also one-ups Netscape by letting you choose to be notified of sites attempting to set prohibited cookies.’
‘Around the dinner table tonight, the topic of weblog popularity came up, so we took turns one-upping each other about how little we care about being popular.’
‘Maybe someday we'll start one-upping another in the job hunt by going to grad school.’
‘The spatial limitations didn't restrain these performances at all: they grandstanded, one-upped each other, and made what I can only describe as ‘European’ arm gestures at the audience in a bravura display.’
‘This means either that Allen has become a more generous writer with age that allows himself to be one-upped by his onscreen opponents or this is a sad signal of his becoming unmotivated and tired of being the funniest man in his films.’
‘The year-old LA store even one-upped the two SF Bay Area locations by adding an upstairs and packing in an even more ludicrous amount of music.’
‘I tried to explain to Rob this whole long talk I had with my professor about life, but Rob one-upped me by telling me a story about how he got in real big trouble and got a really big fine.’
‘Speaking of awards ceremonies, it appears that the ARIAs are about to be one-upped by the MTV Australia Video Music Awards.’
‘Beaming, the designer of the horse-bottle-giraffe combo retreated behind the studio curtains as another designer emerged, ready to one-up his opponent with still loftier flights of Photoshop-fancy.’
‘Since the words didn't change within that ten second interval I had to conclude that if you have the audacity to present some idiotic idea for a research grant that some institute will one-up you by actually funding the project.’
‘The idea is that atheists should call themselves ‘brights’ as a way to distinguish themselves and to intellectually one-up those benighted believers.’
‘Well, it is not news that the news networks are always trying to one-up each other, but tonight, they're taking their battle to the Internet, and it could change how you find out the day's news.’
‘Adopting the one-up system he had studied at the European Championships in Portugal, Moyes has busied his ranks of willing midfielders in supporting a lone attacker whilst keeping the solid shape of the team.’
‘I was on my way to listen to them bicker and one-up each other all afternoon while I wondered how to justify in my own mind my participation in this ‘holiday’.’
‘Across the water is the competitive dad of the Murtaugh clan, and soon he and Martin are at odds, enlisting their kids to try and one-up each other.’
‘I just don't see why we have to one-up each other.’
‘But a coalition of Quebec-based groups have decided to one-up the UN, making all of next week the Week of Action Against Racism.’
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