own up

verb

owned up; owning up; owns up

intransitive verb

: to admit to being responsible for something

denied having broken the window, but later owned up

—usually used with to

They owned up to having broken the window.

Examples of own up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Juan is finally owning up to cheating on Jessica as his new life in Wyoming gets off to a rough start. —Abigail Adams, People.com, 10 Mar. 2025

Jessica, to her credit, owns up to her behavior and apologizes directly to Amber, who didn’t exactly accept the apology, but was clearly happy to have received it. —Kathryn Vanarendonk, Vulture, 10 Mar. 2025

Comedian Hannah Berner is owning up to her poor choice of words during a post-Academy Awards interview with Megan Thee Stallion that sparked backlash on social media. —Karu F. Daniels, New York Daily News, 7 Mar. 2025

There’s got to be some relief that comes with owning up to your worst mistakes and paying a price for it. —Jackie Strause, The Hollywood Reporter, 1 Mar. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1844, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for own up

• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup
• markup