Upended

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To be turned over completely or disrupted significantly, often leading to a complete inversion of normalcy or traditional structure
2. To have one's position or circumstances altered dramatically, resulting in a reversal or overturning of what was originally in place
3. Placed in a position with the bottom side facing upward ; subjected to a sudden change that reverses the usual order

Etymology: "Upended" is the past tense of "upend," a verb formed in English by joining "up" and "end." The compound is transparent: the "end" is the far or extremity of something, and to upend a thing is to turn it so that its end points up. Something upended has been flipped over, its base now in the air. The "end" half has a long pedigree. It descends from an Old English word, "ende," which goes back to Proto-Germanic "andijaz" and, further back, to an Indo-European root associated with the notion of facing or being opposite. In Middle English it was "ende," and it settled into the modern "end" with its familiar sense of a finishing point. Upending, then, is literally putting the far point where the near one was.

Synonyms: overturned, reversed, displaced, disturbed, uprooted

Antonyms: stabilized, established, settled, secured, fixed