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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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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Not all data centers are water cooled but those that are can consume as much as 5 million gallons a day, the same as a town with a population of 25,000 people.—
Krista Kafer,
Denver Post,
25 Jan. 2026
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These wines were shipped to other continents and consumed in royal courts.—
Emily Price,
Forbes.com,
24 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Introverts have social batteries that will drain over time, but they can be recharged with good energy hygiene.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
29 Jan. 2026
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Stop forcing yourself into formats that drain you.—
Jodie Cook,
Forbes.com,
29 Jan. 2026
Verb
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On its upward climb, the SLS will quickly exhaust the fuel in all six of its first-stage engines, and they will be jettisoned, leaving only the rocket's upper stage and the Orion spacecraft to reach orbit.—
Jeffrey Kluger,
Time,
29 Jan. 2026
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But freedom of expression is a constant pursuit, as natural as breathing, and silencing it is an imperfect practice that exhausts the oppressor and energizes the oppressed.—
David Ehrlich,
IndieWire,
28 Jan. 2026
Verb
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The exchange did not show how that played out.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
31 Jan. 2026
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In a city where detentions have largely played out on the streets, Homan’s comments have highlighted a battle that has been unfolding in the background.—
Elizabeth Wolfe,
CNN Money,
30 Jan. 2026
Verb
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These approaches can help identify fields where farmers can use less phosphorus or pause it altogether, allowing crops to draw down the legacy phosphorus already present.—
Dinesh Phuyal,
The Conversation,
26 Jan. 2026
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Those two factors caused the program to start drawing down its reserves around 2009, much sooner than had been projected in 2021 and 2022, according to Nuñez.—
Lorie Konish,
CNBC,
23 Jan. 2026
Verb
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This comes at a time when there has been talk of reducing the number of PGA tournaments on the calendar.—
Kirk Kenney,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
27 Jan. 2026
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The cross-border clearing platform could streamline operations, reducing risks in OTC trades that dominate the market.—
Sean Lee,
Forbes.com,
27 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Now, the question of whether the US could again use force – or tactics like tariffs or sanctions – to strong-arm countries into choosing Washington’s interests over ties with China is a viable risk being evaluated in the region’s capitals.—
Simone McCarthy,
CNN Money,
31 Jan. 2026
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Those who bought the checks would then attempt to fraudulently cash them, according to federal prosecutors, using a variety of methods.—
Joseph Buczek,
CBS News,
30 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Use up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/use%20up. Accessed 1 Feb. 2026.
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