How to Use upstream in a Sentence

upstream

adverb or adjective
  • Five of the floating bombs were dropped upstream of the bridge.
    David Hambling, Popular Mechanics, 16 Aug. 2023
  • The saltwater wedge starts at the mouth of the river and moves upstream.
    Eric Zerkel, CNN, 26 Sep. 2023
  • Kruse followed the path upstream, searching for the rest of the creature.
    Dallas News, 2 Aug. 2022
  • The Snellings’ boat, pushed upstream by long poles, became stuck in some trees.
    Curt Brown, Star Tribune, 19 Sep. 2020
  • This allows longer casts upstream or down to drift the worm just above the bottom.
    Bill May, baltimoresun.com/maryland/carroll, 20 Mar. 2021
  • These need to cover the whole business and not just upstream.
    Wood MacKenzie, Forbes, 3 June 2021
  • The rocks create a series of rapids and small cascades upstream from the falls.
    Chelsey Lewis, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 25 Mar. 2021
  • But even that’s swimming upstream in the rivers of coaching.
    Ryan Ford, Detroit Free Press, 21 Nov. 2021
  • Each spring, salmon migrate upstream from the ocean to the chilly headwaters of rivers to mate.
    Gabe Allen, Discover Magazine, 30 Dec. 2023
  • Flip the flies upstream at a 45-degree angle, and raise the rod to remove any slack.
    Popular Science, 26 Oct. 2020
  • After going upstream, the victim tried to swim back to shore but got stuck in the mud.
    oregonlive, 9 July 2020
  • Just upstream from Cochem is Beilstein, the quaintest of all Mosel towns.
    Rick Steves, Chicago Tribune, 20 June 2023
  • A few yards upstream, his wife, Katie Green, was minding more poles.
    Freep.com, 23 May 2021
  • The Ohlone people lived upstream for thousands of years.
    Carl Nolte, SFChronicle.com, 21 Nov. 2020
  • Across the street from the parking lot is Inkwells, a steep and rocky part of the creek where determined fish jump their way upstream.
    Tara Duggan, San Francisco Chronicle, 3 Jan. 2023
  • The 40-acre island would be built just upstream of the dam with the sand and mud the corps dredges out of the lock to keep it open for navigation.
    Greg Stanley, Star Tribune, 16 Nov. 2020
  • There’s a good trout rising 35 feet upstream at 11 o’clock.
    Darrell Kunitomi, Los Angeles Times, 19 Oct. 2023
  • Our project lies 20 river miles upstream from the nearest point of the BWCA.
    Julie Padilla, Star Tribune, 20 Dec. 2020
  • For the time being, though, Canoo is still paddling upstream.
    Jacob Carpenter, Fortune, 12 July 2022
  • Walking the pole from stern to bow would propel the boat downstream, if the bow were pointed upstream.
    Smithsonian Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, 5 Sep. 2024
  • Crews searched upstream and downstream, on foot, by boat and using drones.
    Sarah Nelson, The Indianapolis Star, 1 Apr. 2021
  • Today, more water needs to make its way all the way down through rivers and dams far upstream of the lake, Abbott said.
    Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA TODAY, 11 Jan. 2023
  • The storm that causes the water to flow could be miles upstream of your location.
    Weldon B. Johnson, azcentral, 3 June 2020
  • Likewise, dead pool upstream at Lake Powell could dry up the Grand Canyon.
    Brandon Loomis, The Arizona Republic, 27 June 2022
  • The temporary dam is still what holds back the water about 10 miles upstream from the Crimean border.
    BostonGlobe.com, 9 May 2021
  • One body was found stuck in the southern section of the buoys, and another body was found three miles upstream.
    Tara John, CNN, 3 Aug. 2023
  • Quickly the pilot banked the plane into the wind, heading back upstream.
    Scott Haugen, Outdoor Life, 11 Sep. 2024
  • Finally, the school of salmon that had been hunkered down near the Ugashik’s mouth surged upstream, and the state opened the river on July 19.
    Miranda Weiss, Wired, 13 June 2020
  • The slide created new rapids at the entry point, with sediment and mud continuing to shift, altering river conditions along a three-mile stretch upstream.
    Tom Howarth follow, Newsweek, 4 Nov. 2024
  • This last effort to mitigate flooding will affect dozens of communities both upstream and downstream in the Menomonee River watershed for the better, according to Schindler.
    Bridget Fogarty, Journal Sentinel, 5 Nov. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'upstream.' 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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