rely on/upon

phrasal verb

relied on/upon; relying on/upon; relies on/upon

: to need (someone or something) for support, help, etc. : to depend on (someone or something)

My mother relied on me for financial support.

They rely on a well for all their water.

: to trust or believe (someone or something)

She's someone you can rely on.

I relied heavily upon your advice.

You could always rely on him to disagree.

: to expect (something) with confidence : to be certain that (something) will happen or exist

The economy may improve next year, but it's not something you can rely on.

Examples of rely on/upon in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Yet to keep pace with their massive customer needs, those vendors need to rely on service providers to support software development and testing. —

Carlos Melendez, Forbes, 18 Sep. 2024 Traditional staining methods rely on toxic reagents and can take hours or days to produce results. —

Aaron Weitzman, Axios, 18 Sep. 2024 Unlike spring wildflowers, fall colors do not rely on Arizona’s fickle bouts of moisture. —

Roger Naylor, The Arizona Republic, 18 Sep. 2024 One key tactic is to not rely on social media for election news. —

Rebecca Schneid, TIME, 18 Sep. 2024 See all Example Sentences for rely on/upon

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'rely on/upon.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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“Rely on/upon.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rely%20on%2Fupon. Accessed 24 Sep. 2024.

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