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

All 9 batters came up in the Centennial fourth inning as the Spartans tied the game 3-3. —Darren Lauber, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 8 Apr. 2026

The Sox brought the tying run to the plate in both the eighth and ninth innings, but came up short to drop their second straight in the series. —Lamond Pope, Chicago Tribune, 8 Apr. 2026

About a month later, the subject of Flick’s future came up in another press conference. —Laia Cervelló Herrero, New York Times, 8 Apr. 2026

The topic didn’t come up from the largely enthusiastic crowd of at least 850 people at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center. —Ben Paviour, Sacbee.com, 8 Apr. 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