live up to
Idioms-
Live or act in accordance with; also, measure up to. For example, Children rarely live up to their parents' ideals , or This new technology has not lived up to our expectations . [Late 1600s]
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Carry out, fulfill, as in She certainly lived up to her end of the bargain . [First half of 1800s]
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.
They claim the Constitution for themselves and demand that the law live up to it.
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026
It is, of course, a natural limitation of the defense of the Great Books, as a genre, that the discourse fails to live up to the actual experience of reading any one of those books.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
It is a game which, in hoping to live up to the original's legacy, photographs well.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
We cheered our national ideals, and the nation seemed unified in trying to live up to them.
From Salon ● Jul. 3, 2026
Unlike academically oriented research organizations, the NACAs laboratories always strove to live up to the “practical solutions” of their founding mission.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
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.
