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

Ultimately Argentina came up short in the final against Spain, but the tournament was undoubtedly lit up by Messi's brilliance once again. — ABC News, 25 Oct. 2026

And yes, in 1861, Richard Cadbury came up with the Valentine box of chocolates, thus forging an indissoluble link between candy and the lucrative holiday calendar for all time to come. — Jeffrey Steingarten, Vogue, 25 Oct. 2026

Strazik's view on capital constraints to finance the AI buildout — and by extension demand for the gas turbines needed to power all these new data centers — may come up on the call. — Kevin Stankiewicz,zev Fima, CNBC, 25 Oct. 2026

Unfortunately, both of Atlanta’s professional basketball teams came up empty. — Lauren Williams, AJC.com, 25 Oct. 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