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

Those came up during his divorce proceedings, and Hastings had resigned from leadership positions in the Senate and was urged by Gov. JB Pritzker to resign his seat. —Mike Nolan, Chicago Tribune, 8 July 2025

The water had only come up to their door, but others weren’t as lucky. —Rachel McRady, People.com, 8 July 2025

But only humans can come up with new ideas, communicate those ideas across an organization and work together to put them into practice. —Kempton Presley, Forbes.com, 7 July 2025

The film’s creators have come up with a winning combination of fantasy, romance, thrills, together with great special effects, and this chemistry will keep Superman alive on the screen for many years. —Martin Gold, HollywoodReporter, 7 July 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