: the art or practice of outdoing or keeping one jump ahead of a friend or competitor
engaged in a round of verbal one-upmanship
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Hundreds of recent statutes, executive actions, and regulations seem to play a game of one-upmanship in which states try to find ways to be even more cruel.βπ Image Darren Rosenblum, Mercury News, 21 Mar. 2026 The drone displays and Minion cameos and technological one-upmanship that has defined this event in the 2020s were not the focus this time.βπ Image Judy Berman, Time, 7 Feb. 2026 Young ideologues compete to prove their fealty to MAGA by engaging in a kind of transgressive one-upmanship.βπ Image Laura K. Field, The Atlantic, 5 Feb. 2026 Choose kindness over cleverness, warmth over wit, empathy over one-upmanship.βπ Image Glenn Kurlander, Fortune, 28 Jan. 2026 Except, when the rehearsals start in earnest and boys enter the duoβs orbit in after-school adventures, their already off-balance dual existence and sneaky one-upmanship worsens.βπ Image Tomris Laffly, Variety, 24 Jan. 2026 Hosting duties became a game of high-stakes one-upmanship.βπ Image Lauren Brown West-Rosenthal, Parents, 7 Jan. 2026 There is a constant need to upgrade their facilities, in the silent race for prestige and primacy of which the constant prize money one-upmanship is just one element.βπ Image Matthew Futterman, New York Times, 6 Jan. 2026 Music promoters, both craving the one-upmanship and genuine satisfaction of getting a lucrative band back on a stage, have more money at their disposal than ever before to make their pipe dreams a reality.βπ Image Devon Ivie, Vulture, 13 Nov. 2025
