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Synonyms

come up

British  

verb

  1. to come to a place regarded as higher

  2. (of the sun) to rise

  3. to begin

    a wind came up

  4. to be regurgitated or vomited

  5. to present itself or be discussed

    that question will come up again

  6. to begin a term, esp one's first term, at a college or university

  7. to appear from out of the ground

    my beans have come up early this year

  8. informal to win

    have your premium bonds ever come up?

  9. to be faced with; come into conflict or competition with

  10. to equal or meet a standard

    that just doesn't come up to scratch

  11. to produce or find

    she always comes up with the right answer

"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

come up Idioms  
  1. Arise, present itself, as in This question never came up . [Mid-1800s]

  2. Rise (from a lower place to a higher one) as in We'll leave as soon as the sun comes up . [9th century]

  3. 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]

  4. 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.

"The same numbers might still come up. But they might not."

From BBC

Some of them are returning to record after a long break, during which the musical environment they came up in has turned over multiple times.

From The Wall Street Journal

As the year comes to a close, we look at the biggest storylines coming up for Hollywood -- and make a few predictions.

From Los Angeles Times

In the coming days, those questions will surely come up again.

From Los Angeles Times

Bloomberg taps an array of publicly information—including real estate values, insider stock transactions, dividends and taxes—to come up with the estimates for its index, which is updated daily.

From Barron's