come up

verb

came up; come up; coming up; comes up

intransitive verb

1

: rise sense 6

2

: to come near : make an approach

came up and introduced himself

3

: to rise in rank or status

an officer who came up from the ranks

4

a

: to come to attention or consideration

the question never came up

b

: to occur in the course of time

any problem that may come up

5

: to turn out to be

the coin came up tails

6

chiefly dialectal : grow up

Phrases

come up empty

: to fail to achieve a desired result

come up with

: to produce especially in dealing with a problem or challenge

came up with a solution

Synonyms

• approach
• belly up
• close
• close in
• draw on
• near
• nigh

Examples of come up in a Sentence

the girl came up to the counter and asked if she could have her order prepared to go

let me know if anything else comes up during the project

Recent Examples on the Web

Gino Filippone was at a dinner with seasoned real-estate brokers this spring when the obvious topic came up: the NAR settlement. —Adriane Quinlan, Curbed, 14 Nov. 2024

The larger cities in the Bay Area, while mostly coming up in the middle of the pack, did make improvements from last year. —Kate Talerico, The Mercury News, 9 Nov. 2024

The Chargers have three-straight home games coming up next – two of which are in primetime against other AFC playoff hopefuls the Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens. —Ben Morse, CNN, 5 Nov. 2024

Thanksgiving 2024 is coming up on Thursday, November 28. —Kasey Caminiti, USA TODAY, 5 Nov. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

come up

verb

1

: rise entry 1 sense 4

the sun comes up in an hour

2

: to come near or approach

came up and introduced himself

3

: to come to attention : introduce sense 4

the question came up again