bring up

verb

brought up; bringing up; brings up

transitive verb

1

: to bring (a person) to maturity through nurturing care and education

2

: to cause to stop suddenly

3

a

: to bring to attention : introduce

b

computers : to cause (something, such as a file or picture) to appear on a computer screen

… you can make any picture that it displays into wallpaper by right-clicking with the arrow over the art to bring up a box with a "Set as wallpaper" choice.

—Barry Popik

4

: vomit

intransitive verb

: to stop suddenly

Synonyms of bring up

• raise
• foster

Examples of bring up in a Sentence

it takes an immense commitment and a lot of love to bring up a child properly

I hate to bring this up, but we're running short of money.

Recent Examples on the Web

Cruise also can’t stop bringing up his Tropic Thunder character Les Grossman, who does seem to bare some similarities to Digger in that both are prosthetics-laden olden men with bombastic personalities. — Fran Hoepfner, Vulture, 18 Sep. 2026

Speaking about his next move on the small screen, Hader brought up his Jim Jones series in the works at HBO. — Ethan Shanfeld, Variety, 18 Sep. 2026

Salesforce is bringing up the rear for the portfolio, down about 2%. — Alexa Lomonaco,kevin Stankiewicz, CNBC, 17 Sep. 2026

Griffin brought up the moment as the cohosts discussed Andy Cohen apologizing for previously insulting Dancing With the Stars performer Julia Stiles, who called the Watch What Happens Live host out on DWTS earlier this week. — Joey Nolfi, Entertainment Weekly, 17 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Rhymes for bring up

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

Kids Definition

bring up

verb

1

: to bring to maturity through care and education

bring up a child

2

: to bring to attention : introduce

I hate to keep bringing this up

Medical Definition

bring up

transitive verb

(ˈ)briŋ-ˈəp 

: vomit