Upset

/ʌpˈsɛt/ · adjective

Meaning

(of a person, predicative only) Angry, distressed, or unhappy.

Definitions by Sense

1. (of a person, predicative only) Angry, distressed, or unhappy
2. (of a stomach or gastrointestinal tract) Feeling unwell, nauseated, or ready to vomit.
3. (uncountable) Disturbance or disruption.
4. (countable, sports, politics) An unexpected victory of a competitor or candidate that was not favored to win.
5. (automobile insurance) An overturn.
6. An upset stomach.
7. (mathematics) 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.
8. (aviation) 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.

Example Sentences

He was upset when she refused his friendship.

My children often get upset with their classmates.

We were shocked when we asked a disruptive man in the front row to move to the back, and when he subsequently left, the producer's helpers were so upset for him they gave him two free tickets to the next 'women's music' production.

His stomach was upset, so he didn't want to move.

Bryan came home from school with an upset tummy.

My late arrival caused the professor considerable upset.

But it is probably the biggest upset for the away side since Ronnie Radford smashed a famous goal as Hereford defeated Newcastle 2-1 in 1972.

Sanders’s win in Michigan was one of the greatest upsets in modern political history.

Synonyms for upset

Antonyms for upset

Related Words

Word Forms

• more upset
• most upset
• upsets
• upsetting
• upset

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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