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

see also come up empty, come up with

Synonyms of come up

• come
• draw on
• close
• approach
• close in

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

But the sale did not go through, and as the seller was walking away, the other teen came up to him, and the two began struggling over the item. —Todd Feurer, CBS News, 1 Jan. 2026

Here's every time Heated Rivalry came up during CNN's New Year's Eve Live special. —Emily Tannenbaum, Glamour, 1 Jan. 2026

The giant spider felt like a failure of imagination — all that lead-up to the final battle, and that’s the most interesting thing the show could come up with? —Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 1 Jan. 2026

The pair came up at the same time, getting their starts in college towns in the early 2000s. —Josh Crutchmer, Rolling Stone, 1 Jan. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

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

Rhymes for come up

• buttercup
• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup

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