ring up
Britishverb
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to make a telephone call (to)
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(tr) to record on a cash register
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(tr) to chronicle; record
to ring up another success
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to begin a theatrical performance
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(often foll by on) to make a start (on)
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Record, especially by means of a cash register, as in They had already rung up the sale so I decided not to get the extra items . [c. 1930] Although older cash registers usually signaled a recorded sale with the ringing of a bell, the idiom survives in the age of computers.
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Accomplish, achieve, as in They rang up an impressive string of victories .
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.
Franchisees have invested thousands of dollars in new equipment per restaurant to mix the drinks, hoping to ring up more sales while not slowing service, the people said.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 13, 2026
I used to ring up Freeman Dyson, the famed physicist, at the slightest excuse.
From Slate • Dec. 9, 2025
I used to ring up people like Alex Ferguson and Mick McCarthy and I remember Mick asking how it was going.
From BBC • Mar. 20, 2024
Merchants hurried to ring up purchases and shuttered storefronts.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 4, 2024
She held the ring up to the pale light and it glimmered with a slow, white, fairy’s fire, and she knew that it was full of magic.
From "Ash" by Malinda Lo
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.
