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one up
1adjective
- having gained an advantage in some way that betokens success, especially over rivals.
- leading an opponent by one point or one scoring unit:
The home team was one up on the visitors.
- one each; tied at a score of one:
The score was one up in the ninth inning.
adverb
- Printing. with only one reproduction of a form per sheet or on a given sheet:
We must print this job one up.
- Journalism. using one more column of space than of type.
one-up
2[ wuhn-uhp ]
verb (used with object)
- to get the better of; succeed in being a point, move, step, etc., ahead of (someone):
They one-upped the competition.
one-up
adjective
- informal.having or having scored an advantage or lead over someone or something
Word History and Origins
Origin of one up1
Origin of one up2
Idioms and Phrases
Having an advantage or lead over someone, as in Sara is one up on Jane because she passed algebra in summer school . This expression comes from sports, where it means to be one point ahead of one's opponents. It was transferred to more general use about 1920.Example Sentences
Recordings by Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic nabbed six 2025 Grammy nominations Friday, with Dudamel and the orchestra picking one up for orchestral performance for their work on composer Gabriela Ortiz’s “Revolución Diamantina.”
But there were choruses of boos each time CNN announced that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was projected to pick one up.
Order online or swing by the L.A. showroom on Beverly Boulevard and pick one up IRL.
Leaner, more agile in the field and with perhaps the safest pair of hands in the England team, Brook said he would have "got to 150 and slogged one up in the air" had he not got into such fine physical condition.
And once a country has set one up, what’s to stop another nation establishing their base a bit too close?
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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