go up
Britishverb
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(also preposition) to move or lead to or as if to a higher place or level; rise; increase
prices are always going up
the curtain goes up at eight o'clock
new buildings are going up all around us
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to be destroyed
the house went up in flames
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to go or return (to college or university) at the beginning of a term or academic year
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Be put up, as in New buildings are going up all over town .
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Rise; increase. For example, His temperature is going up at an alarming rate , or The costs of construction are going up all the time . [Late 1800s]
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Also, be gone up . Be destroyed, ruined, done for; also, die, be killed. For example, If we're not back in a week, you'll know we've gone up , or In spite of our efforts, the plans for a new library are gone up . [ Slang ; mid-1800s]
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Forget one's lines on the stage or make a mistake in performing music. For example, Don't worry, you know your part and you won't go up , or He went up in the last movement of the sonata . [ Slang ; 1960s] Also see the subsequent idioms beginning with go 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.
For example, he pointed to widening credit spreads for AI-related company debt amid an “insatiable demand” to borrow money among corporations that “won’t care if rates go up 200 points.”
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 17, 2026
Students who want to go "up the scale" will be allowed, Burke said, for example, if a student finishes a bachelor's degree and then wants to complete a masters.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
Nobody else wants to go up to the orchards in Oregon and pick the fruit.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026
If your employer pays you in cash and chooses to round, the rounding must go up.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026
Heads are nodding in agreement, and at least a dozen hands go up.
From "Linked" by Gordon Korman
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.
