to get one up on
1
6.1
- phrasal verb
- Informal
:
superar a
Examples
-
Just because she got one up on me?
-
You can't let Goltz get one up on you, Funky.
-
She always tries to get one up on her colleagues by arriving early to the meetings.
-
In the competition, his main goal was to get one up on his rival and prove he was the best.
-
To get one up on her competitors, she researched their strategies and improved her own.
Synonyms
83
3.4
Do better than others, for example at work or school
54
4.1
To get an advantage over someone by being clever
30
4.8
Do better than someone or something
22
3.8
Be better than someone at something
20
3.9
To change a situation so you get the advantage over someone who had it before
15
4.8
Do better and get more attention than others
11
6.7
To do or say something to seem better than someone
9
3.4
To move into a leading position in a race or competition
9
6.8
To act before others to get an advantage
8
4.6
To be much better than someone or something
4
7.0
To gain an advantage over someone by using clever or unexpected actions
3
5.3
To defeat someone by using their own methods
2
6.1
To do better than someone or something and win
1
6.7
To get more people or money than someone else
1
7.9
To defeat the person or team at the top and take their place
To try to be better than someone in a contest or task
To impress people more than others
To get an advantage over someone by doing better than them
Get an advantage over other companies or people
Antonyms
How Advantageous
275
3.7
932
2.1
- Informal
1
6.1
22
3.8
1
4.2
2
3.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to achieve an advantage' is partially derivable from 'get' (obtain) + 'one' (a single unit/point) + 'up' (ahead/higher), since together they suggest obtaining a higher position relative to someone. However, 'one-up' operates as a conventional idiomatic unit and the full collocation 'get one up on' is lexicalized; many B1 learners who know the individual words may not reliably infer the exact advantage/outdo sense without prior exposure.
Etymology
The phrasal verb get one up on comes from old games and sports where scoring a point made you one up, or one point ahead of your opponent. So, to get one up on someone means 'to gain an advantage over someone'.