Meaning of one-upmanship | Babel Free

Definitions

1. The art or practice of successively outdoing a competitor.
2. A succession of instances of outdoing a competitor.

Equivalents

Examples

“They are focused on one-upmanship, which is the essence of a competitive spirit.”

“[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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

CEFR level