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

• approach
• belly up
• close
• close in
• draw on
• near
• nigh

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

Goyal’s team came up with several call overwriting candidates from the Russell 1000 , assuming an options expiration date of Aug. 16 for each. —Darla Mercado, Cfp®, CNBC, 22 July 2024

University of Bristol Because dogs can't self-report on their degree of optimism or pessimism, the researchers came up with a proxy. —Michael Franco, New Atlas, 22 July 2024

Siri Daly has come up with the perfect soundtrack to her life as a mom. —Hannah Sacks, Peoplemag, 22 July 2024

In January, Audacy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and came up with a plan to emerge from it, including laying off 25 percent of its staff at Pineapple Street at the end of January and later reorganizing the podcast division under new branding. —Caitlin Huston, The Hollywood Reporter, 22 July 2024

Word History

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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