come up

verb

came up; come up; coming up; comes up

intransitive verb

1

: rise sense 6

2

: to come near : make an approach

came up and introduced himself

3

: to rise in rank or status

an officer who came up from the ranks

4

a

: to come to attention or consideration

the question never came up

b

: to occur in the course of time

any problem that may come up

5

: to turn out to be

the coin came up tails

6

chiefly dialectal : grow up

Phrases

come up empty

: to fail to achieve a desired result

come up with

: to produce especially in dealing with a problem or challenge

came up with a solution

Synonyms

• approach
• belly up
• close
• close in
• draw on
• near
• nigh

Examples of come up in a Sentence

the girl came up to the counter and asked if she could have her order prepared to go

let me know if anything else comes up during the project

Recent Examples on the Web

What doesn’t come up in online conversations is the bad luck 2-23 Green Bay has endured this year. —Chris Branch, The Athletic, 14 Feb. 2025

These winners will also spur competitors to come up with similar designs. —Michael Verdon, Robb Report, 14 Feb. 2025

The sun came up, and Hertz, in his yellow fire jacket and boots, listened to his radio. —Stephen Rodrick, Rolling Stone, 13 Feb. 2025

That gave us enough of a source of material to play around and come up with our own version of that. —Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 13 Feb. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

come up

verb

1

: rise entry 1 sense 4

the sun comes up in an hour

2

: to come near or approach

came up and introduced himself

3

: to come to attention : introduce sense 4

the question came up again