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.
In it, she said that she rang up Emmett’s purchase at the store and that he then grabbed hold of her and made advances.
From Washington Post
“Simon rang up and said: ‘Well, we ought to do something.
From Washington Post
So, I just quietly let the cashier ring up my items.
From Salon
The banker on March 13 rang up UBS warning the world's biggest wealth manager that it should prepare to receive a call from Swiss authorities.
From Reuters
The constant price changes meant cashiers had to manually ring up shoppers’ items, which increased shoppers’ wait times and led to impatient customers.
From New York Times
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.
