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• pull-up
  pull-up

  noun

  an exercise consisting of chinning oneself, as on a horizontal bar attached at each end to a doorpost.
• pull up
  pull up

  verb

  (tr) to remove by the roots

pull-up

American  

[pool-uhp] / ˈpʊlˌʌp /

Or pullup

noun

• pull-ups
  plural

1. an exercise consisting of chinning oneself, as on a horizontal bar attached at each end to a doorpost.

2. a flight maneuver in which an aircraft climbs sharply from level flight.

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pull up British  

verb

1. (tr) to remove by the roots

2. to move level (with) or ahead (of) or cause to move level (with) or ahead (of), esp in a race

3. to stop

4. (tr) to rebuke

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noun

1. an exercise in which the body is raised up by the arms pulling on a horizontal bar fixed above the head

2. old-fashioned a roadside café

pull up Idioms  

1. Stop or cause to stop, as in He pulled up his horse , or They pulled up in front of the door . [Early 1600s]

2. Catch up, advance in relation to others, as in a race. For example, She was behind at the start, but she quickly pulled up . [Late 1800s] Also see pull oneself up by one's bootstraps .

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• pull-ups
  plural

Etymology

Origin of pull-up

First recorded in 1850–55; noun use of verb phrase pull up

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pull-up pull up pull-ups

At the other end, she swiped the ball from a driving player, drove to the arc and hit a pull-up 3-pointer.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026

As long as Hegseth keeps his chest-thumping and pull-up contests in the land of make-believe, these men are happy.

From Salon ● Mar. 13, 2026

That was during lockdown and his home gym consisted of a pull-up bar, a few weights, and a plastic bench in his garage.

From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2025

In need of a confidence boost, UCLA’s Dylan Andrews followed a pull-up jumper with a tough turnaround baseline jumper to pull his team within 53-47 with 12:36 left.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 10, 2025

His pull-up jumper floats through the net, then everything goes slow motion: the ball, the player .

From "The Crossover" by Kwame Alexander

After coming through his opening match with little fuss, the questions then turned to how Alcaraz would pull up physically two days later.

From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026

“I would pull up an oboe sound, and he’d play it,” says Barton, “and it was sort of a childlike thing where he was just like, ‘Oh, this allows me to hear my ideas.’”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026

As summer heat settles over the Southwest, it changes the circulation in the atmosphere enough to pull up monsoonal moisture from the Pacific and Gulf of California, fueling warm rain and thunderstorms.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026

“It’s moving so fast on my Instagram right now that my analytics will not pull up the correct numbers,” Lamb said of her post.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026

We pull up and a security guard comes out.

From "Marcus Vega Doesn't Speak Spanish" by Pablo Cartaya

“I can do 25 pull-ups that can impress you.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026

She also included an audio clip from a “Rocky” movie over a montage of her skiing, doing pull-ups, lifting weights — and vomiting into a bucket.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 5, 2026

Parents being called into school to change children's pull-ups and nappies is "unfair", one father has said.

From BBC ● Jan. 8, 2025

In another, he answers questions in military fatigues before performing a series of pull-ups in a gym.

From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2024

Using muscles I’d honed through hundreds of push-ups and pull-ups, I heaved myself upward toward safety.

From "Glitch" by Laura Martin

Related Words

• arrive
• brake
• pause