use up
Britishverb
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to finish (a supply); consume completely
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to exhaust; wear out
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Consume completely, as in The kids used up all their money playing video games . [Late 1700s]
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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.
Shame can keep victims from reporting the crime, which can use up a narrow window for recovery.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026
Walmart said it would use up to $3bn of expected tariff refunds to lower prices in a bid to keep customers spending.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
He and his roommates would use up to six stove burners at a time to prepare meals together, he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 9, 2026
The early 2000s saw the arrival of coconut water, once seen as way to use up a byproduct from coconut cream that caught on years later.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 11, 2026
I think of my mother, sweeping up deadly toxins; the way they used to use up old women, in Russia, sweeping dirt.
From "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
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.
