Upends

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To invert or flip an item or scenario completely
2. To cause something to tip over so that its original top becomes the bottom
3. To move an object forcefully until it is upside down or reversed in position

Etymology: "Upends" is the third-person singular present form of "upend," which means to turn something upside down or onto its end. The verb is a plain compound: "up" joined to "end," with "end" in the old sense of the far or finishing point of something. To upend something is to lift it so that its end, or base, points where its top used to be. The two parts come from separate Germanic lineages. "Up" descends from Old English "up," which goes back to a common Germanic root shared with the Dutch "op" and German "auf." "End" traces to Old English "ende," from a Germanic root that also gave German "Ende," and it is linked to the sense of a boundary or termination. Put together, "upend" literally means to turn so that the end goes up.

Synonyms: overturns, reverses, capsizes, flips, inverts

Antonyms: stabilizes, uprights, sets, positions, grounds