as in to spend
to make complete use of
we used up the last of the flour when we made the waffles
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of use up
Between toiletries, clothes, shoes, and electronics, bag space can be used up quickly.
—
Michelle Baricevic, Travel + Leisure, 19 Dec. 2025
For those with a sweet tooth, a festive holiday jam with four types of berries will take your breakfasts up a notch and is a great way to use up extra bags of frozen cranberries left over from Thanksgiving.
—Francesca Giuliani Hoffman, CNN Money, 17 Dec. 2025
Palmer then drove his team 99 yards on 15 plays, using up nearly nine minutes.
—John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 Dec. 2025
Spencer, who is 29 and clearly NBA-ready, has already used up 24 of those games, having played in 15 of them.
—Joseph Dycus, Mercury News, 5 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for use up
Michelle Baricevic, Travel + Leisure, 19 Dec. 2025
For those with a sweet tooth, a festive holiday jam with four types of berries will take your breakfasts up a notch and is a great way to use up extra bags of frozen cranberries left over from Thanksgiving.
—Francesca Giuliani Hoffman, CNN Money, 17 Dec. 2025
Palmer then drove his team 99 yards on 15 plays, using up nearly nine minutes.
—John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 Dec. 2025
Spencer, who is 29 and clearly NBA-ready, has already used up 24 of those games, having played in 15 of them.
—Joseph Dycus, Mercury News, 5 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for use up
Recent Examples of Synonyms for use up
Verb
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Joabe Barbosa, Matthew Plese and Omar Yousaf spent the day riding the entire MARTA rail system in an attempt to complete the full route in roughly three hours.—
Kaley Fedko,
CBS News,
9 Jan. 2026
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Visitors can spend their entire trip switching off between the two, but be sure to take some time to explore the rocky cove beaches called calas that have made Costa Blanca famous.—
Liz Provencher,
Travel + Leisure,
9 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Researchers pondered what the gargantuan black hole consumed to release such a powerful flare.—
Ashley Strickland,
CNN Money,
7 Nov. 2025
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People who aren't used to eating fiber-rich foods may experience bloating and gas after consuming fibrous foods.—
Jillian Kubala,
Health,
7 Nov. 2025
Verb
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During the final week, the crew worked nonstop for sixty hours in a heat wave that parched energy and drained our bodies.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
7 Nov. 2025
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Instead, voters now are expressing concerns that high prices for groceries, electricity bills and housing are draining their bank accounts.—
Josh Boak,
Fortune,
6 Nov. 2025
Verb
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The team concentrated on stars that had recently entered the post-main sequence phase, having exhausted their hydrogen, and identified just 130 planets and planet candidates orbiting nearby – 33 of which had not been detected before.—
Bojan Stojkovski,
Interesting Engineering,
8 Nov. 2025
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Despite these real dangers, our law enforcement shows incredible restraint in exhausting all options before force is escalated.—
James Hill,
ABC News,
7 Nov. 2025
Verb
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The agency has launched a recruitment drive to relieve the stress by hiring thousands of new officers as quickly as possible, but that process will likely take months or years to play out.—
Ted Hesson,
USA Today,
2 Sep. 2025
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This will likely play out as a behind-the-scenes debate followed by some procedural hijinks on the Senate floor.—
Lauren Peller,
ABC News,
2 Sep. 2025
Verb
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The decline in the measure reflected producers drawing down their raw materials inventories at the fastest rate since October 2024.—
Reade Pickert Bloomberg,
Arkansas Online,
6 Jan. 2026
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More recently, as inventories have been drawn down, the downstream order environment has improved, and imports for the world-less-China are projected to reach a record in 2025/26.—
SJ Guest Editorial,
Sourcing Journal,
15 Dec. 2025
Verb
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During his January 2025 State of the State address, Little called for tax cuts that could reduce the state’s general fund by about $100 million.—
Sarah Cutler,
Idaho Statesman,
9 Jan. 2026
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To reduce sizes, builders are going back to open floor plans with fewer hallways.—
Lew Sichelman,
Miami Herald,
9 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Privacy and partners Lenovo built Qira using a hybrid AI architecture.—
Aamir Khollam,
Interesting Engineering,
7 Jan. 2026
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Soft, spreadable butter that can be used instantly on toast and biscuits, or in baking recipes for cookies, cakes, and more.—
Alicia Geigel,
Southern Living,
7 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Use up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/use%20up. Accessed 10 Jan. 2026.
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