upstage

English

WOTD – 13 November 2006

Etymology

From up- +‎ stage. The figurative uses “haughty” and “to draw attention away” derive from actors moving to a higher and thus more visible position on a sloped stage.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʌpˈsteɪd͡ʒ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (Australia):

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• Rhymes: -eɪdʒ

Noun

upstage (uncountable)

1. (theater) The part of a stage that is farthest from the audience or camera.

   Coordinate terms: center stage, downstage, stage left, stage right

Adverb

upstage (comparative more upstage, superlative most upstage)

1. Toward or at the rear of a theatrical stage.

   The actor turned and walked upstage.

2. Away from the audience or camera.

Adjective

upstage (comparative more upstage, superlative most upstage)

1. At the rear of a stage.

   The minimalist play used no upstage scenery.

2. (figurative, obsolete) Haughty, aloof.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:arrogant

   • 1929 December, Betty Boone, “The Price of this Stardom”, in Screenland, page 22:

     If she hasn't time for this or that, if she refuses to make or keep appointments, if her face does not greet all comers with a sweet and charming smile, then the word is passed around that ‘So-and-So is getting high-hat and up-stage.’

Verb

upstage (third-person singular simple present upstages, present participle upstaging, simple past and past participle upstaged)

1. (figurative, transitive) To draw attention away from others, especially on-stage.

   Synonyms: eclipse, overshadow

   She only wore that dress to upstage everyone.

   • 1973, Jerry Vermilye, Cary Grant, New York: Galahad Books, →ISBN, page 56:

     Although constantly upstaged by Miss Moore's vocal flings, Cary Grant brought the appropriate note of light comedy to his role.

   • 1987 August 17, “Peace Moves”, in Newsweek, volume 60, number 7, page 1:

     Ronald Reagan’s peace plan for Nicaragua, which would have worked to his domestic political advantage even if it had failed, is upstaged by a surprise initiative by five Central American countries.

   • 1996, Dave Anderson, The story of the Olympics, New York: W. Morrow, →ISBN, page 10:

     The romance and spectacle of the Olympics have been upstaged by the reality of the Olympics; both the Summer Games and the Winter Games are now as much big business as they are sport.

   • 2023, Naomi Klein, “Meeting Myself in the Woods”, in Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN:

     But she did not want the name bell books—the persona or the idea in people's heads—to upstage bell hooks's ideas, and she understood that there is an unavoidable tension between the baggage a name can come to carry […] .

2. (transitive, theater) To force other actors to face away from the audience by staying upstage.
3. (transitive, by extension) To treat snobbishly.
4. (medicine, transitive) To restage upward; to restage (a case of a disease, usually a cancer) to a higher stage than that found at last assessment.

   Antonym: downstage

   • 1999, “Mismanagement of ovarian cancer by laparoscopy and laparotomy”, in Laparoscopic surgery in gynaecological oncology, Blackwell Science, →ISBN:

     Almost one-third of patients were upstaged after re-exploration, three-quarters of whom actually had stage III disease.

Derived terms

• upstager

Translations

to draw attention away from others — see also eclipse

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 搶風頭 / 抢风头 (zh) (qiǎng fēngtóu)

• German: die Schau stehlen, in den Schatten stellen (de)
• Russian: затмевать (ru) (zatmevatʹ)
• Spanish: hacer sombra, opacar (es), ensombrecer (es)

to force other actors to face away from the audience by staying upstage

to treat snobbishly

Further reading

• rake (theatre) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “upstage”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.