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

Phrases

come up empty

: to fail to achieve a desired result

come up with

: to produce especially in dealing with a problem or challenge

came up with a solution

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

One topic likely to come up is Nvidia's bid to sell more chips to China, and Washington's worry over what that could mean for national security. —Jason Gewirtz, CNBC, 3 Dec. 2025

And in a winner-take-all showdown against the Bills at home in the season finale of the 2023 season, the Dolphins’ offense came up empty on a possible game-winning fourth-quarter drive, sealing a 21-14 loss that squandered the right to host a playoff game. —Miami Herald, 3 Dec. 2025

With the European market launches coming up early in the new year, HBO Max earlier on Wednesday also revealed a raft of upcoming local original series, including a Gina Lollobrigida docuseries in Italy and a new series from the creative team behind Netflix’s German hit original Dark in Germany. —Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 3 Dec. 2025

With interest, the award came up to $28 million, according to Thomas' complaint. —Sam Gillette, PEOPLE, 3 Dec. 2025

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