upheaval Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a state of violent disturbance and disorder (as in politics or social conditions generally)
    turbulence; Sturm und Drang.
    • the industrial revolution was a period of great turbulence
  2. noun a violent disturbance
    turmoil; convulsion.
    • the convulsions of the stock market
  3. noun (geology) a rise of land to a higher elevation (as in the process of mountain building)
    upthrust; uplift; upthrow.
  4. noun disturbance usually in protest
    excitement; turmoil; hullabaloo; agitation.

WordNet

Up*heav"al noun
Definitions
  1. The act of upheaving, or the state of being upheaved; esp., an elevation of a portion of the earth's crust. Lubbock.

Webster 1913