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
Those low-income households that began renting in 1984 and then bought a house saw their wealth go up on average compared with the low-income households that remained renters.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 16, 2026
Passes for Stagecoach, which start at $549 and go up past $4,000 for various VIP packages, will go on sale Friday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026
“Things were moving along pretty well until we started to see interest rates go up and started to see rents go down in Austin,” Vela said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026
If you go up or down two half steps from one note to another, then those notes are a whole step, or whole tone apart.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
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.
