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.
One consequence of their negative reaction to rising rates, however, is that their expected future returns go up.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 18, 2026
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
Nobody else wants to go up to the orchards in Oregon and pick the fruit.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026
“So every time the interest rates go up, it subtracts the amount of market-rate capital you’re able to attract for the deal, and it creates gaps that you have to go fill somewhere else.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026
I go up and stand in front of her.
From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy
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.
