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HOW TO PRONOUNCE

upset

/ʌpˈsɛt/

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American Pronunciation Guide · 0:47
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What does upset mean?

adjective

  1. Angry, distressed, or unhappy
  2. Feeling unwell, nauseated, or ready to vomit.

noun

  1. Disturbance or disruption.
More meanings (15)

noun

  1. An unexpected victory of a competitor or candidate that was not favored to win.
  2. An overturn.
  3. An upset stomach.
  4. An upper set; a subset (X,≤) of a partially ordered set with the property that, if x is in U and x≤y, then y is in U.
  5. The dangerous situation where the flight attitude or airspeed of an aircraft is outside the designed bounds of operation, possibly resulting in loss of control.
  6. A woven row supporting the foundation rods for the uprights of a basket.

verb

  1. To make (a person) angry, distressed, or unhappy.
  2. To disturb, disrupt or adversely alter (something).
  3. To tip or overturn (something).
  4. To defeat unexpectedly.
  5. To be upset or knocked over.
  6. To thicken and shorten a soft or heated piece of metal, by forging or hammering on the end, to shape, for example, rivets or internal combustion engine valves.
  7. To shorten (a tire) in the process of resetting, originally by cutting it and hammering on the ends.
  8. To support with an upset (type of woven row).
  9. (obsolete) To set up; to put upright.

Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0

IPA pronunciation

/ʌpˈsɛt/

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0

Other dictionary pronunciations

/ˈʌp.sɛt/
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0

Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.

In the pages of books

See this word in context.

My cart was upset and shattered, my oxen were entangled among the young trees, and there was none to help me.
Frederick DouglassNarrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American SlaveProject Gutenberg ebook #23
Signa is apt to be skittish at mealtime, when the men are about, and to spill the coffee or upset the cream.
Willa CatherO Pioneers!Project Gutenberg ebook #24
More book examples (3)
Our earlier plans had been so sadly upset that we now found ourselves without food or drink, and I alone was armed.
Edgar Rice BurroughsA princess of MarsProject Gutenberg ebook #62
“Well, now you’ve done what you wanted,” put in Nicholas—“said unpleasant things to everyone and upset them. Let’s go to the nursery.”
Leo, graf TolstoyWar and PeaceTranslated by Aylmer Maude; Louise MaudeProject Gutenberg ebook #2600
The young girls passed hours in listening to it, the vocal mothers were upset by it, brains were busy, punishments descended in showers.
Victor HugoLes MisérablesTranslated by Isabel Florence HapgoodProject Gutenberg ebook #135