Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act or process of lifting up or being lifted up; an upheaval.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Present participle of upheave.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Let us hope the direful upheaving, which is now felt throughout the Union, is the earthquake that will bury it forever.

    Among the Pines or, South in Secession Time James R. Gilmore

  • It was bequeathed this tribal duty by the upheaval in the lands of the Arab-Islamic world [what upheaval? neither Afghanistan nor Iraq were 'upheaving' until we attacked them.] and by the guile and cunning of a generation of jihadists [today's jihadists were yesterday's freedom fighters, I guess it depends on your perspective] and their enablers, who deflected the wrath of their people onto distant American power. "

    Obama's Afghan Struggle 2009

  • Not only should he be more concerned with ending the war, improving the economy and other issues instead of upheaving the whole political system, BUT he has a tendency to play the "blame game" (i.e. blaming and then denouncing his supporters when he or they get bad press OR stating that his words were taken out of context).

    Blitzer: Was Obama taking aim at McCain's age? 2008

  • The Valar went about making a perfect, wonderful world but Melkor was always there ... scorching or freezing, upheaving flat lands, renting asunder the valleys, poisoning the waters, riling the oceans, etc.

    GOP Congressman Ferguson Retiring 2009

  • Gudrun, and spake — “In such wise do matters show to me, as though great and evil things will betide from this trouble and upheaving; and that Brynhild will surely die.”

    The Story of the Volsungs 2008

  • With a similar perverseness, the potatoes crumble off forks in the process of peeling, upheaving from their centres in every direction, as if they were subject to earthquakes.

    Bleak House 2007

  • I was awoke by a heavy breathing, a noise something like sawing under the floor, and a pushing and upheaving, all very loud.

    A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains 2007

  • It broke on to us, upheaving and making the earth undulate, and as it came I said, ‘By Jove! that is a good earthquake.’

    The Romance of Isabel Lady Burton 2006

  • The franchise-writer isn't at odds with the novel-writer - you can still tell a good story without upheaving everything.

    That Feeling of Flying Through The Night 2004

  • Where formerly stretched the calm waters of the lake now appeared an enormous mass of smoking rocks, as if an upheaving of the soil had formed immense shoals.

    The Mysterious Island 2005

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