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Synonyms

one up

1 American  

adjective

  1. having gained an advantage in some way that betokens success, especially over rivals.

  2. leading an opponent by one point or one scoring unit.

    The home team was one up on the visitors.

  3. one each; tied at a score of one.

    The score was one up in the ninth inning.

adverb

  1. Printing. with only one reproduction of a form per sheet or on a given sheet.

    We must print this job one up.

  2. Journalism. using one more column of space than of type.

one-up 2 American  
[wuhn-uhp] / ˈwʌnˈʌp /

verb (used with object)

one-upped, one-upping

  1. to get the better of; succeed in being a point, move, step, etc., ahead of (someone).

    They one-upped the competition.
one-up British  

adjective

  1. informal having or having scored an advantage or lead over someone or something

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
one up Idioms  

  1. 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.

Etymology

Origin of one up1

First recorded in 1920–25

Origin of one-up2

First recorded in 1960–65

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.

I was the first one up the next morning.

From Literature

“The bottoms are full of them. We could have spooked one up when we came to the spring; and it ran by the team and scared them.”

From Literature

I could pick one up and pet it any time I wanted and it wouldn’t bite me.

From Literature

Still, the argument is that without a fully dedicated F1 engine department, Honda lacked a team designing and building a new engine to the revised rules for this year, and had to build one up again more or less from scratch.

From BBC

Second, how do you set one up?

From MarketWatch

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.