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.
A pound of cheddar cheese and a pound of chicken wings both ring up at $3.99.
From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026
It could ring up $11 billion in peak yearly sales, analysts project.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 30, 2026
I used to ring up Freeman Dyson, the famed physicist, at the slightest excuse.
From Slate ● Dec. 9, 2025
Merchants hurried to ring up purchases and shuttered storefronts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 4, 2024
“Cut it out before I ring up the cops,” Miss Annie’s muffled voice cried.
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
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.
