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
Cashiers typed in a long string of digits to ring up orders.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 9, 2025
Merchants hurried to ring up purchases and shuttered storefronts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 4, 2024
So are snack packs with dips, yogurt cups, canned sodas and juices, which are incredibly messy for cashiers to ring up once opened.
From Salon ● Sep. 20, 2023
Writing his name and Papa’s on a scrap of paper, he said to please ring up Hoyt Tweedy in Cold Sassy and say we’d be home some time t’morrer.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
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.
