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

While liner rates tend to be quite volatile for most hitters, Soto has consistently come up short in that area, only exceeding a 20% seasonal rate once in his career, and posting marks over a full standard deviation below league average three times in six years between 2018-23. —Tony Blengino, Forbes.com, 2 June 2025

Your senator -- what -- your senator from Wisconsin, Ron Johnson, one of the two senators who's come up pretty adamantly opposed to where the bill stands right now. —ABC News, 1 June 2025

My Progress My final session is coming up in about eight weeks. —Marie Lodi, Allure, 1 June 2025

Tennessee came up in the bottom of the ninth and pushed one run across the plate to win the game, 5-4. —Ryan Gaydos, FOXNews.com, 1 June 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