Social climber

Usage examples of upstart.

So why did you have to humiliate yourself like that before an impudent upstart, a mere adolescent like me?

Horn all of a blood far more ancient than his, upstart mercenary that he was, dabbler in forbidden things, one who companied with the unspeakable Kolders.

I want to know, in travelling about with an arrogant old tyrant, his blind daughter, upstart, dashy wife, and her two fine-lady nieces?

At thirty, he was developing a slight fussiness of manner which reminded Servilia too painfully of that underbred upstart from Arpinum, Marcus Tullius Cicero.

There is a certain obnoxious little yuwenghau, an upstart godling, named Dynanna who would be perfect for your healing.

I have already seen one woman nearly destroy my family, and I am not about to let an upstart laundress come in and do the same.

And there were plenty of carping fools in the army who would be glad that the upstart from the ranks had at last got his comeuppance, all of which meant that Sharpe must strike back at Loup or else lose his reputation as a lucky and victorious soldier.

I had already decided that there was another thing Great God Dangerfield had garbled: far from being an ancient race, the pigmies are neoteric, upstart usurpers who have appeared only recently on the scene to oust the peke and bear people.

Maia recalled the var-trash romance novel she had read back in prison, about a world spun topsy-turvy, in which stodgy clans collapsed along with the stable conditions that had made them thrive, opening fresh niches to be filled by upstart variants.

The upstart who has troubled his own house and usurped rightful authority within the Padi region has been refused admittance.

Lord Roberd was not accustomed to being dismissed by young upstarts, whatever their rank.

Perhaps Portolanus was only some upstart magician who had come upon the secret cache of the Archimage by accident.

The parkland had once belonged to the Maleson family but was now owned by people Bianca considered upstarts and commoners.

The Rodriguezes are deeply offended at having been outbid by upstarts.

Horsethief Shorty was a boozing, tall-story upstart with a propensity for never making the same mistake twice.