Friday, July 10, 2015

american english - Is it possible to know the meaning of "She upended the chessboard." without a context


Is it possible to know the meaning of "She upended the chessboard." without a context, because of upending means "up..." and "down..." that depends on the context.

For example, here https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/upend?q=upending we have the sentence:



"She upended the chessboard halfway through the game because she was losing."



I figure out, to start a new game, somebody must say:



Upend the chessboard halfway and let's start a new game.



My question is about the possibility if that possibility exists, that same syntax (upend) can have the opposite meaning, not different but opposite. I am expecting the answer "Yes" or "No" and some examples.



In Google translate for Croatian language stay:

Upend

"Oboriti" = overthrow, topple, bring down, knock down, fell, upend

"Uspraviti" = straighten, hold up, upend

The Croatian word "Oboriti" is opposite to Croatian word "Uspraviti" but both words in the English we can translate with upend.

My one example:

The vase has been upended, please upend it to stay like before.

But does these "The vase has been upended (overthrow, topple, bring down, knock down, fell, upend), please upend (straighten, hold up, upend) it to stay like before." explains why I ask the question? Why "upend" is in both of this group of verbs?

Wait a minute, wait a minute.

None of you have thought: "Why somebody has been translating 'upend' in some other language like that? Is there somewhere something in the real world of a native speaker reason for that?




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