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

The pipes had clogged and the room was flooded with sewage coming up a drain. — Itzel Luna, Los Angeles Times, 10 July 2026

After his search came up empty, Ronaldo Salgado came across a Facebook post about ICE activity in the East End area. — Dalia Faheid, CNN Money, 9 July 2026

As The Verge reports, a bill that’s coming up for a vote this year would require fully autonomous vehicles to use both cameras and at least two other sensing technologies — in most cases, lidar and radar. — Victor Tangermann, Futurism, 9 July 2026

Casey came up with an excuse prior to the 2023 season to have Gary dig out the Dodgers card, then had his local tattoo artist make his vision a unique — and realistic — homage. — Marc Topkin, The Orlando Sentinel, 9 July 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