pull-up

or pull·up

[ pool-uhp ]

noun
  1. an exercise consisting of chinning oneself, as on a horizontal bar attached at each end to a doorpost.

  2. a flight maneuver in which an aircraft climbs sharply from level flight.

Origin of pull-up

1
First recorded in 1850–55; noun use of verb phrase pull up

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use pull-up in a sentence

  • And he was so infernally insistent about it, that she was forced to pull up and get away from the post in self-defense.

    Raw Gold | Bertrand W. Sinclair
  • We pull up, with steaming cattle, at the old ‘White Horse,’ where lunch is spread.

  • It is a wonder he did not pull up geraniums instead of weeds, his mind was so far away.

    The Box-Car Children | Gertrude Chandler Warner
  • For scarcely were they over the river when a horseman barred their way, and called upon the driver to pull up.

    Mistress Wilding | Rafael Sabatini
  • Our train did not pull up to the platform as usual, so all the passengers in turn had the pleasure of taking a three-foot leap.

    Ways of War and Peace | Delia Austrian

British Dictionary definitions for pull up

pull up

verb(adverb)
  1. (tr) to remove by the roots

  2. (often foll by with or on) to move level (with) or ahead (of) or cause to move level (with) or ahead (of), esp in a race

  1. to stop

  2. (tr) to rebuke

nounpull-up
  1. an exercise in which the body is raised up by the arms pulling on a horizontal bar fixed above the head

  2. British old-fashioned a roadside café

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with pull-up

pull-up

Stop or cause to stop, as in He pulled up his horse, or They pulled up in front of the door. [Early 1600s]

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.