Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

upset the applecart

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.50 in modern English

Syllables: up-set the ap-ple-cart
IPA

28

Scrabble Score

17

Letters

4

Syllables

10

Unique Chars

Meaning

verb

To disorganize or spoil something, especially an established arrangement or plan.

Example Sentences

"“There are three reasons,” Trent answered. “First, he may find his way to England and upset the applecart; […]”"
"She told me herself just now that the worst was over. And those confounded people must go and upset the applecart."
"Last week the Senate Banking Committee upset the carefully stacked apple cart when it voted 10 to 5 not to approve the Administration's bill."
"This kind of impact causes contusions in the front and back areas of the brain and can create microscopic bleeding and shearing of neural pathways, causing synapses to misfire, upsetting the applecart of your brain, sometimes forever."

Inflected Forms

upsets the applecart (present, singular) upsetting the applecart (participle, present) upset the apple cart (alternative)

Synonyms

cook someone's goose drive a coach and horses through ball up blight bumble botch bugger up bungle contaminate corrupt crab deprave

Questions

What does upset the applecart mean?: To disorganize or spoil something, especially an established arrangement or plan.

How to pronounce upset the applecart

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