led up; leading up; leads up
Examples of lead-up in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Martha McHardy, MSNBC Newsweek, 25 June 2025
Eisman drew similarities between the rocky trade environment and lead-up to World War I, likely referring to a series of treaties forged in the decades before the war designed to settle regional skirmishes that, in reality, created two massive, and eventually opposing, alliances.
—Sasha Rogelberg, Fortune, 18 June 2025
Diana Leyva, The Tennessean, 4 July 2025
California has seen a spate of accidental fireworks explosions leading up to the Fourth of July, with a Thursday morning detonation killing one person in a Simi Valley home and a similar incident critically injuring two people in a Bay Area residence.
—Los Angeles Times, 3 July 2025
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Noun
That support remained high in the lead-up to the Iraq War in 2003, with 71 percent backing the strikes and 27 percent against.
—Martha McHardy, MSNBC Newsweek, 25 June 2025
Eisman drew similarities between the rocky trade environment and lead-up to World War I, likely referring to a series of treaties forged in the decades before the war designed to settle regional skirmishes that, in reality, created two massive, and eventually opposing, alliances.
—Sasha Rogelberg, Fortune, 18 June 2025
Verb
Tennessee has scheduled several events throughout 2025 and 2026 leading up to the semiquincentennial.
—Diana Leyva, The Tennessean, 4 July 2025
California has seen a spate of accidental fireworks explosions leading up to the Fourth of July, with a Thursday morning detonation killing one person in a Simi Valley home and a similar incident critically injuring two people in a Bay Area residence.
—Los Angeles Times, 3 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for lead-up
Cite this Entry
“Lead-up.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lead-up. Accessed 13 Jul. 2025.
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lead up
verb
: to make a gradual approach to a topic
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