one-upmanship

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.

That kind of provocative behavior will lead to years, even a lifetime, of one-upmanship, backbiting and behind-the-scenes maneuvers.

From MarketWatch • Nov. 3, 2025

The resulting game of financial one-upmanship has tied the fates of the world’s biggest semiconductor and cloud companies—and vast swaths of the U.S. economy—to OpenAI, essentially making it too big to fail.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 21, 2025

Jason, who was capped for England, jokingly replied: "It’s always like one-upmanship on who can get hurt the worst."

From BBC • Sep. 2, 2024

A mini succession drama unfolds, but like the HBO series on the subject, it’s impossible to separate corporate one-upmanship from family dysfunction.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 16, 2024

He read and reread the works of Stephen Potter—the English writer who coined the terms one-upmanship and gamesmanship—not as social satire but as a manual of practical stratagems.

From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer