student asking question

What does "one up each other" mean? Is this a general expression?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

To "one up" someone means to do better than them at something by being a step ahead of them. This is a general expression and can be used whenever someone is trying to do better than someone else. Ex: She one upped me in the speech competition. Ex: Every time I study hard to try and get a good grade on the test, he always one ups me and scores higher than me.

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