1958 B. Nichols Sweet & Twenties 200 Miss Tempest always ‘upstaged’ her—..she slowly pushed her chair to the rear so that..Miss X was obliged to turn away from the audience.

1958 New Statesman 6 Sept. 302/2 So if Strether's ‘tragedy’ seems..rather trivial, that is partly because the hero has been upstaged by the backdrop.

1972 Islander (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 18 June 6/3 While Gracie was singing her famous aspidistra song, a stray dog wandered onto the stage and upstaged her.

1976 Early Music 4 400/1 I would hesitate before telling an Aeneas that he is being literally upstaged during his climactic high F.

1921 H. C. Witwer Leather Pushers x. 268 Nada Nice has upstaged the Kid..at your orders.

1946 ‘C. Brahms’ & ‘S. J. Simon’ Trottie True v. 103 The Duchess stood there exerting her personality to its most ducal extent... ‘Blast,’ said Trottie under her breath. ‘Upstaged.’

1967 Daily Tel. 10 Apr. 10/6 My sister..didn't get on with the other debs—she was more beatnik. They were rude and kept up-staging her.

1974 ‘R. Tate’ Birds of Bloodied Feather iii. 57 It was the only occasion in Edward's life that he had been upstaged by his younger brother.

1933 P. Godfrey Back-stage iii. 40 With the chronic up-stager the only remedy for the other actors is to withhold their speech until they have deliberately taken up a position favourable to themselves.

1933 P. Godfrey Back-stage iii. 40 ‘Crowding’ and ‘up-staging’ are tricks of the selfish actor... ‘Up-staging’ is to take up a position nearer to the back of the scene than the other players. This forces them to turn three-quarter-back to the audience when speaking to the up~stage actor.

1968 M. Woodhouse Rock Baby v. 46 I'd been running a bright, upstaging little war with Driver and McKellar and patting myself on the back.

1982 P. Lovesey False Inspector Dew ii. iii. 29 With her dramatic training, she knew all about up-staging.

1870 O. Logan Before Footlights xxxv. 500 And in one minute..has been convulsed with laughter at a side-speech given ‘up stage’ and as a sort of sequel to the sentiment delivered to the audience.

1923 J. Agate At Half-past Eight 209 You remember how Marcus and Mercia..with the lions roaring up-stage, kept a steadfast face to their admirers.

1938 C. Mackenzie Windsor Tapestry xx. 418 At this point the dapper figure of Mr Anthony Eden crosses upstage.

1946 A. Clarke Second Kiss 11 Columbine enters, right, upstage, hesitant, and as if in fear.

1967 T. Stoppard Rosencrantz & Guildenstern i. 23 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern occupy the two downstage corners looking upstage.

1976 Listener 1 Apr. 404/2 The Wallace family felt able to emerge from its bailiff-proof bolt-hole in SE4, and move upstage a bit to Clarence Gate Gardens, by Baker Street.

1918 F. Hunt Blown in by Draft 287 As doggy as the military police, as upstage as the Engineers..the Field Signal Battalion has the additional point of being of strangest birth.

1927 Sunday Express 8 May 10 Although Costello..had definite ideas..in connection with his art, as he took pictures seriously, he was never in the least bit ‘up stage’ with us youngsters.

1938 Sun (Baltimore) 3 Oct. 8/3 Even without ‘Cotton Ed's’ upstage behavior, this plea would have been unimpressive.

1947 N. Marsh Final Curtain xii. 188 All upstage and county!

1966 ‘J. Hackston’ Father clears Out 84 He was a little patronizing to me, upstage in his bearing.

1933 P. Godfrey Back-stage i. 14 The up-stage O.P. flood.

1959 Times 14 Dec. 13/4 She was the first producer we had ever had who never dithered about which was Up Stage and which Down.

1974 F. Warner Meeting Ends i. viii. 30 Hanging on upstage side of pump..are a brightly coloured towel and a black shawl.