sew up

verb

sewed up; sewn up or sewed up; sewing up; sews up

transitive verb

1
: to mend completely by sewing
2
: to get exclusive use or control of
3
: to make certain of : be assured of
the team sewed up the division title

Examples of sew up in a Sentence

sewed up the available openings so that no one else had a chance to play golf
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Harris sewed up Biden’s delegates and started her campaign. Bill Goodykoontz, The Arizona Republic, 29 Oct. 2024 Latin America At Chile’s rate meeting, cooler-than-expected inflation data likely sews up a quarter-point rate cut to 5.25%. Jason Ma, Fortune, 12 Oct. 2024 How Google got here After building its near monopoly position in the search market, Google began sewing up the online ad market more than 15 years ago, first with the purchase of online ad marketplace DoubleClick in 2007 for $3.1 billion. Peter Green, Quartz, 23 Sep. 2024 The majority of the NFL’s media rights deals are sewn up with traditional broadcast partners. Lillian Rizzo, CNBC, 10 Sep. 2024 See all Example Sentences for sew up 

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of sew up was in the 15th century

Dictionary Entries Near sew up

Cite this Entry

“Sew up.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sew%20up. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.

Kids Definition

sew up

verb
1
: to get exclusive use or control of
2
: to make certain of
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!