one-upmanship
one-upmanship {v.}, {informal}
Always keeping ahead of others; trying to keep an advantage.
No matter what I do, I find that Jim has already done it better. He's an expert at one-upmanship.
Jack took the news to the principal while we were still talking about it. He's very quick to practice one-upmanship.
Compare: ONE UP. (The word one-upmanship was made up by a British humorist, Stephen Potter, on the pattern of such words as sportsmanship and workmanship.)
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Source: A Dictionary of American Idioms
