come up
Britishverb
-
to come to a place regarded as higher
-
(of the sun) to rise
-
to begin
a wind came up
-
to be regurgitated or vomited
-
to present itself or be discussed
that question will come up again
-
to begin a term, esp one's first term, at a college or university
-
to appear from out of the ground
my beans have come up early this year
-
informal to win
have your premium bonds ever come up?
-
to be faced with; come into conflict or competition with
-
to equal or meet a standard
that just doesn't come up to scratch
-
to produce or find
she always comes up with the right answer
-
Arise, present itself, as in This question never came up . [Mid-1800s]
-
Rise (from a lower place to a higher one) as in We'll leave as soon as the sun comes up . [9th century]
-
Also, come up to . Approach, come near, as in He came up and said hello , or The dog came right up to Nora . [Early 1700s]
-
Also, come up to . Rise in status or value, be equal to, as in His paintings will never come up to his teacher's , or This officer came up through the ranks . [c. 1600] A variant is , used for someone who has risen in rank, wealth, or status; for example, He has really come up in the world—he now owns a yacht , or I could see at once that she was a woman who would rise in the world . Also see the subsequent idioms beginning with come up .
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
An investigation might not come up with a singular answer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
And yet, "peptides come up with my conversations with patients every single day," he told AFP.
From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026
In this case, Chinese authorities have not completely banned the discussion – keywords such as "Wang Wang" and "animal protection" still come up as trending search terms.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
International Business Machines warned last week that its quarterly revenue had come up short as customers drained their budgets on artificial-intelligence hardware, leaving less room to invest in software.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026
He tells the kids that they can come up and pick which musical instruments they want to try out for the day.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
