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

• 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 subject never came up again, and the family spent the rest of the week as if nothing had happened. —Ashley Vega, PEOPLE, 30 Oct. 2025

Stop coming up with all of these creative ways of saying Eric failed. —Molly Ball, Time, 29 Oct. 2025

At one point, Macy is interviewing her sister Cookie, who believes the 2020 election was rigged, when Macy’s older child, who is gay, comes up. —Alex Kotlowitz, The Atlantic, 29 Oct. 2025

Korpisalo came up with a two huge saves on a Horvat breakaway and his follow-up, but that gave the Isles momentum. —Steve Conroy, Boston Herald, 29 Oct. 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