bring up
Formsbrings up, bringing up, brought up
- 1To mention something, such as a subject, a problem, or a question.
Nobody at the meeting wanted to bring up the budget cuts.
He kept bringing it up, even after we asked him to drop the subject.
Similarmention, raise, broach, introduce
Note
A subject is lifted into the conversation, much as the literal sense lifts paints from a basement. The person you raise it with takes with: bring it up with your manager. Someone who brings up a subject does so on purpose; when a search or an old photo brings something up, that is the "uncover" meaning, and no speaker need be involved.
- 2To raise or rear children, caring for them as they grow.
She was brought up by her aunt in a small town in Maine.
Many families now bring up their children speaking two languages at home.
Note
The rearing sense keeps the phrase's older shape in view. Middle English said upbringen, with up first, and that order lives on in the noun upbringing and in the doublet upbring. In use it leans on the passive to say where or how someone grew up, as in Margery Allingham's The China Governess: St. Mary's Home, where I was brought up.
- 3To bring someone or something from a lower place or position to a higher one.
Could you bring up two more chairs from the basement?
The crane brought up the steel beams to the top floor one at a time.
Similarfetch, carry, raise, lift
Oppositelower
Note
The literal phrase is the place to learn the grammar most of its senses share. A noun can stand on either side of up (bring up the paints, bring the paints up), but a pronoun must go in the middle: bring them up, never bring up them. Up need not mean stairs: in law a case is brought up from a lower court to a higher one.
- 4
- 5To vomit, bringing food or other matter up from the stomach.
He was so seasick that he brought up his breakfast over the rail.
Dogs that eat grass will sometimes bring it up a few minutes later.
Similarvomit, regurgitate
- 6To charge someone and put them on trial, or more broadly to bring someone before an authority to be judged or examined.
The officers were brought up on misconduct charges after the video surfaced.
Prosecutors plan to bring the former mayor up on fraud charges next month.
Note
Charges arrive with on: someone is brought up on fraud charges or on misconduct charges. The accused need not be a person. The book The Gilded Hearse was brought up on obscenity charges, which a New York magistrate then dismissed, so being brought up says nothing yet about the outcome; it only puts the case before a court.
- 7To switch on or start a machine or system so that it is running.
It takes about ten minutes to bring up the servers after a power outage.
The engineer brought up the main engines an hour before the ship left port.
Similarstart (entry), boot, activate
- 8To stop or interrupt something in progress, such as a flow of speech or a steady movement.
The rope went tight and brought the climber up short a few feet below the ledge.
Her blunt question brought him up short in the middle of his speech.
Note
Its natural partner is short: a chain, a tight rope or a sharp question brings someone up short, stopping them mid-stride or mid-sentence. Short is not required, though. In Rex Stout's Fer-de-Lance (1934), Nero Wolfe cuts off a pleading Miss Barstow simply by bringing her up brusquely with "That's all." Either way the stop is sudden.
- 9To reach a particular score, especially a milestone such as a century.
The captain brought up his century with a six over long-on.
A boundary off the final ball was enough to bring up the team's highest total of the season.
Similarreach
Note
Cricket saves the phrase for milestones: a batter brings up a century with the stroke that reaches it, and a team total is brought up the same way. The subject can be the player or the shot, so a boundary off the last ball can bring up a record total just as a batter brings up a hundred with a four over midwicket.
- 10In electronics, to test a newly assembled printed circuit board for faults.
The team spent a week bringing up the prototype board before it went to the testing lab.
Engineers bring up each new board revision slowly, one section at a time.
Note
Electronics engineers give the phrase a narrower job than switching a machine on: the board is new, nothing is yet known to work, and each section has to be checked in turn. Anyone who has been tasked with bringing up a board knows how trying it is. The object is the board itself, or a fresh revision of it.
- 11To prepare a vein so that an injection can be given into it.
Squeezing a soft ball for a minute can help bring up a vein before a shot.
The paramedic warmed the patient's arm and brought up a vein on the second try.
Less common meaning
- 12To level type, making it ready for printing by building it up with overlays.
The pressman spent an hour bringing up the type with thin sheets of paper before the first proof.
Low letters print pale unless you bring up the type to an even height.
Note
This belongs to the old pressroom and has dropped out of use. Type that stood low or worn printed pale, so it was built up with thin overlays until every letter gave an even impression. The up is meant literally: the low type is raised to the height of the rest, which keeps it close to the plain "lift" meaning.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English bring up, a dissimilated form of Middle English upbringen (“to bring up, raise”). It is a doublet of upbring.