wrap up

Formswraps up, wrapping up, wrapped up

1. 1
   phrasal verbidiomatictransitive or intransitive

   To bring something to a complete conclusion, or to come to an end.

   The team hopes to wrap up the investigation before the end of the year.

   Filming wrapped up in Toronto after a four-month shoot.

   Similarfinish, conclude, complete, finalize, end

   Oppositebegin, start (entry), launch

   Note

   With a vague it, wrap it up means bring whatever is going on to a close: a speaker who says “I'll wrap it up in another couple of minutes” is promising to stop, and a side that scores late to wrap it up has put the result beyond doubt.

2. 2
   phrasal verbtransitive or intransitive

   To cover or enclose something by folding a covering all the way around it and securing it.

   Let me wrap up the rest of the cake for you to take home.

   Scarves and sweaters wrap up more neatly than oddly shaped toys do.

   Similarpackage, pack, bundle

   Oppositeunwrap

   Note

   Like most phrasal verbs it can split around a short object, wrap the gift up, and must split around a pronoun, wrap it up. It can also take a second object for the person who will get the package: “Let me wrap you up a piece of this pie.”

3. 3
   phrasal verbidiomatictransitive or intransitive

   To put plenty of warm clothing on oneself or someone else as protection from the cold.

   Spectators wrapped up in blankets and wool hats to watch the midnight fireworks.

   Parents wrap up their toddlers in snowsuits before letting them out to play.

   Note

   Used without an object it means dressing yourself, and it likes an adverb of thoroughness: wrap up well, wrap up thoroughly, however well you wrap up, you get cold. Muffle up and bundle up are its close relatives.

4. 4
   noun · wrap-upcountable

   A brief final summary of what came before, especially at the end of a news program.

   The evening news closes with a two-minute wrap-up of the day's top stories.

   Her weekly wrap-ups of city hall news are the most-read posts on the site.

   Similarsummary, recap, roundup, rundown

   Note

   The noun takes a hyphen, while the verb it comes from stays two words, so an anchor wraps up the day's news in the evening wrap-up. The plural is wrap-ups, and the word suits any closing summary, though the news program is its most familiar home.

5. 5
   phrasal verbidiomatictransitive or intransitive

   To summarize something, briefly restating its main points.

   The anchor wrapped up the week's headlines in a ninety-second recap.

   To wrap up, let me go back over the three options you face.

   Similarsummarize, recap, conclude

   Note

   It shades into the “finish” meaning, since a summary usually comes last: to wrap up, as a sentence opener, announces both the recap and the end. Newscasters wrap up the day's events this way, and a textbook chapter offers final points to wrap up what you have read.

6. 6
   noun · wrap-upcountable

   A concluding action or stage; the conclusion of something.

   The wrap-up of the deal took longer than the negotiations themselves.

   Volunteers stayed late for the wrap-up, stacking chairs and counting the donations.

   Similarconclusion, completion, finish, close

   Oppositebeginning, start (entry), opening

7. 7
   phrasal verbfigurativelyidiomatictransitive

   To surround someone protectively, as if in a cocoon.

   The small town wrapped up the grieving family in meals, visits, and quiet kindness.

   The soft music seemed to wrap him up and shut out the noise of the city.

   Similarenvelop, cocoon, enfold, embrace

   Note

   The protection can be welcome or smothering. Love or a hug that wraps you up is comfort, but to wrap someone up in cotton wool is to overprotect them, and the person wrapped may resent it: “that drives me crazy.” Either way, someone is always the object.

8. 8
   phrasal verbfigurativelyidiomatictransitive

   To tie someone up, keeping them so occupied that they cannot respond or act.

   The agency wrapped up the inspectors in red tape until the deadline had passed.

   Reporters wrapped up the minister in budget questions until he ran out of time for his own announcement.

   Similarentangle, swamp

   Note

   What does the binding follows in: technicians can wrap you up in details, and officials can wrap a man up in red tape while they wait for advice. The person is the object, held fast rather than merely kept busy.

9. 9
   phrasal verbtransitive

   To combine or incorporate several things into a single whole.

   That one photograph wraps up everything she loved about the summer (the lake, her friends, the long evenings) in a single frame.

   The designers tried to wrap up every feature customers had asked for into a single model.

   Similarcombine, incorporate, integrate, bundle, package

   Note

   It often travels with all and one: wrap them all up in one word, in one big hairy package, or into one compact machine. Both in and into introduce the single thing that results.

10. 10
    phrasal verbtransitive or intransitive

    To curl into a more compact form, or to curl something into one.

    When the dog nudged it, the pill bug wrapped up into a gray ball no bigger than a pea.

    Climbers wrap up the extra rope into a neat coil before stowing it.

    Similarcurl, coil, roll

    Oppositeuncurl, unroll

11. 11
    phrasal verbfigurativelytransitive

    To hide or cover up something, often by dressing it in a more pleasing form.

    The ad wraps up a bad deal in bright colors and big promises.

    Some families wrap up old scandals so tightly that the children never hear of them.

    Similardisguise, mask, conceal, cloak

    Oppositeexpose, reveal

    Note

    The covering is introduced by in, and it has been a pleasant one for centuries: poison “wrapt up in sugred words” in Summer's Last Will and Testament, or a dishonest tradesman's sins wrapped up in a bland smile and a cringing bow.

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