add up


verb(adverb)
  1. to find the sum (of)

  2. (intr) to result in a correct total

  1. (intr) informal to make sense

  2. (intr foll by to) to amount to

Words Nearby add up

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

How to use add up in a sentence

  • But suppose the pages do not add up to the same amount—they rarely do, and they rarely should—What then?

  • Then he began to add up the counterfoils of his cheque-book, a depressing operation that displayed an imminent financial crisis.

    Plashers Mead | Compton Mackenzie
  • But something is going to happen, just as sure as you can add up two and three and make five out of them.

  • In itself, each critical situation was minor, but lumped together they could add up to failure.

    Student Body | Floyd L. Wallace
  • They wrote down another word or two (which isn't fair), and then began to add up.

    Happy Days | Alan Alexander Milne

Other Idioms and Phrases with add up

add up

Amount to an expected or correct total, as in These figures don't add up, meaning they are not correct. [Mid-1800s]

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.