follow-up

noun

fol·low-up | \ ˈfä-lō-ˌəp

Definition of follow-up

(Entry 1 of 3)

1a : the act or an instance of following up

b : something that follows up

2 : maintenance of contact with or reexamination of a person (such as a patient) especially following treatment The surgeon scheduled a follow-up with his patient a week after the surgery.

3 : a news story presenting new information on a story published earlier A few days after the story broke, the newspaper printed a follow-up.

follow-up

adjective

Definition of follow-up (Entry 2 of 3)

1 : of, relating to, or being something that follows up follow-up action by the police— Frank Faulkner had a few follow-up questions after the interview

2 : done, conducted, or administered in the course of following up persons follow-up care for discharged hospital patients

follow up

verb

followed up; following up; follows up

Definition of follow up (Entry 3 of 3)

transitive verb

1 : to follow with something similar, related, or supplementary following up his convictions with action— G. P. Merrill She followed up her first novel with a second one.

2 : to maintain contact with (a person) so as to monitor the effects of earlier activities or treatments All patients were followed up clinically for four months.

3 : to pursue in an effort to take further action the police are following up leads

intransitive verb

: to take appropriate action follow up on complaints

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Examples of follow-up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb

The Police Department’s juvenile officer will continue to follow up with the student involved and the student’s family, Petrak said. — Kimberly Fornek, chicagotribune.com, "Brookfield police say picture of gun sent from one Lyons Township High School student to another was not meant as a threat," 12 Sep. 2019 Deputy Daryl Allen told reporters at the scene that investigators were at the home to follow up on a domestic violence report involving Lopez-Herrera that had been filed over the weekend. — Los Angeles Times, "Suspect in shooting of deputy in Central Valley captured," 5 Sep. 2019 But D’Angelo in particular struggled to follow up 2000’s Voodoo, at first attempting to record an album by playing every instrument himself. — Al Shipley, Billboard, "Worth the Wait: The 10 Best Albums That Fans Waited Over a Decade For," 29 Aug. 2019 Tebo and Gahan spoke on the phone about the incident, the complaint said, and Gahan instructed Tebo to follow up with the boys' parents the following morning, to determine whether police or social services needed to be contacted. — Bob Dohr, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Charges dismissed against Waukesha school administrator accused of failing to report suspected child abuse," 27 Aug. 2019 He felt obliged to follow up on all of them out of fear of missing important information about homework or school activities. — Kirsten Grieshaber, The Denver Post, "How do you teach kids about texting? Bring in the teenagers as media scouts," 25 Aug. 2019 As Brian Heins, a senior designer at Obsidian, told The Verge in an interview, The Outer Worlds isn’t meant to follow up any specific past game. — Chaim Gartenberg, The Verge, "The Outer Worlds swaps Fallout’s post-apocalypse for art deco in space," 2 Aug. 2019 The mission aims to follow up on 2008’s Chandrayaan-1 orbiter, India’s first lunar spacecraft. — Michael Greshko, National Geographic, "India's historic moon mission launches toward lunar south pole," 22 July 2019 The university must submit a monitoring report by March 1, after which a commission team will visit to follow up, according to the statement. — Sameer Rao, baltimoresun.com, "Amid review of University of Maryland's accreditation, commission places school on 'warning'," 29 June 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'follow-up.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Dictionary Entries near follow-up

follow-through

follow through

follow through on/with

follow-up

follow up

follow up on (something)

folly

Statistics for follow-up

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Time Traveler for follow-up

The first known use of follow-up was in 1767

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More Definitions for follow-up

follow-up

noun

English Language Learners Definition of follow-up

: something that continues or completes a process or activity

follow-up

noun

fol·low-up | \ ˈfäl-ə-ˌwəp, ˌfäl-

Medical Definition of follow-up

(Entry 1 of 2)

: maintenance of contact with a patient at one or more designated intervals following diagnosis or treatment especially to examine again or monitor the progress of therapy also : an instance of such contact At three-month and six-month follow-ups, he had only mild, residual facial swelling on the lower left side. — Meredith August et al., The New England Journal of Medicine, 29 Dec. 2005

Other Words from follow-up

follow-up adjective

a follow-up visit follow-up care When ovarian cancer is found, better follow-up procedures and more aggressive chemotherapy are prolonging remissions, even in women with advanced disease. — Mayo Clinic Health Letter, January 1992

follow up

transitive verb

\ ˌfäl-ə-ˈwəp

Medical Definition of follow up (Entry 2 of 2)

: to maintain contact with (a patient) at one or more designated intervals following diagnosis or treatment especially to examine again or monitor the progress of therapy patients who are followed up after their discharge She was discharged on postoperative day 4 and was followed up in the surgery clinic 19 days postoperatively.— Steven L. Bloom et al., The New England Journal of Medicine, 21 Oct. 2010