: to make a gradual or indirect approach to a topic
Examples of lead-up in a Sentence
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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
After the intelligence failures leading up to the Iraq War, the country is rightfully more skeptical of what the government says.—Domenico Montanaro, NPR, 23 June 2025 But a high line without sufficient pressure from your midfielders or attackers leaves your defenders exposed, as was the case for the sequence leading up to Asencio’s dismissal.—Dermot Corrigan, New York Times, 22 June 2025 See All Example Sentences for lead-up
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