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Synonyms

use up

British  

verb

  1. to finish (a supply); consume completely

  2. to exhaust; wear out

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
use up Idioms  

  1. Consume completely, as in The kids used up all their money playing video games . [Late 1700s]

  2. Exhaust, tire out, as in I'm totally used up from digging that hole . [ Colloquial ; mid-1800s]

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.

I believed that if I allowed myself to get charged up by adrenaline rushes before the game started, I would use up energy I needed for the entire game.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 12, 2026

While non-parasitic plants may use up to 200 genes to build and maintain plastids, Balanophora retains only about 20.

From Science Daily • Dec. 20, 2025

According to the International Energy Agency, data centres use up to 30% of their electricity consumption on cooling.

From BBC • Nov. 15, 2025

I’ve been quietly working on this one for months — a small obsession that started as a way to use up a half-empty carton of buttermilk and turned, somehow, into a quest.

From Salon • Nov. 4, 2025

How wonderful a fire would be, but if he made one, he realized, he could burn himself out of his home, or anyway use up the oxygen.

From "Abel's Island" by William Steig

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.