Word Direct Answers

What does "upset" mean?

Upset: (a) To thicken and shorten, as a heated piece of iron, by hammering on the end. (b) To shorten (a tire) in the process of resetting, originally by cutting it and hammering on the ends.

Additional senses

  1. 2.To overturn, overthrow, or overset; as, to upset a carriage; to upset an argument. "Determined somehow to upset the situation." Mrs. Humphry Ward.
  2. 3.To disturb the self-possession of; to disorder the nerves of; to make ill; as, the fright upset her. [Colloq.]
  3. 4.To become upset.
  4. 5.Set up; fixed; determined; -- used chiefly or only in the phrase upset price; that is, the price fixed upon as the minimum for property offered in a public sale, or, in an auction, the price at which property is set up or started by the auctioneer, and the lowest price at which it will be sold. After a solemn pause, Mr. Glossin offered the upset price for the lands and barony of Ellangowan. Sir W. Scott.
  5. 6.The act of upsetting, or the state of being upset; an overturn; as, the wagon had an upset.

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