crop up

verb

1. informal.
   intr, adverb to occur or appear, esp unexpectedly

Idioms and Phrases

Appear unexpectedly or occasionally, as in One theory that crops up periodically is the influence of sunspots on stock prices , or We hope new talent will crop up in the next freshman class . [Mid-1800s]

Example Sentences

“The loose intermodal analogies — for example, ‘Red is like the sound of a trumpet’ — which crop up in discussions of this subject are of little use.

From Salon

“When it did crop up occasionally through my childhood, it could have been happening in a different country for all we knew. It just felt so far removed,” she said.

From Los Angeles Times

Forums convened for the purpose of sharing and managing feelings of election anxiety have cropped up across the country over the past few weeks.

From Los Angeles Times

"It's a classic Stoker story, the struggle between good and evil, evil which crops up in exotic and unexplained ways," he added.

From BBC

An industrial chemical used in plastic products has been cropping up in illegal drugs from California to Maine, a sudden and puzzling shift in the drug supply that has alarmed health researchers.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• arrive
• come
• come out
• develop
• emerge
• materialize
• occur
• pop up
• present
• show
• show up
• surface
• turn out
• turn up