phrasal verb

• 1run something up, run up somethingAllow a debt or bill to accumulate.

  ‘he ran up debts of $153,000’

  More example sentences

  • ‘He also suggested BT should use technology to detect obvious faults in the system before such enormous bills were run up.’
  • ‘As a result of mismanagement, debts of 110 million guilders had been run up and these were taken on by the Dutch state.’
  • ‘More costs were run up the next morning when the plumber returned to fit a temporary stop-cock.’
  • ‘He had put enormous strain on their finances and ran up debts of £ 8,000 on her credit card.’
  • ‘He ran up $5,000 in debt on eight credit cards during his early years at the University of Miami.’
  • ‘By his own admission, he ran up a £9,000 drinks bill in his room in the course of three weeks.’
  • ‘Allen suffered a heart attack soon after he began working and ran up $31,000 in medical bills.’
  • ‘The bank has been compliant in allowing the football club to run up a level of debt it could never pay back from trading.’
  • ‘The soccer superstar has apparently run up a hotel bill of £432,875 since his move to Real Madrid.’
  • ‘Miss Ward was also inspired after former staff at her beauty salon in the High Street, Penge, ran up a £500 phone bill.’

  Synonyms

  accumulate, accrue, amass, collect, gather, stockpile, heap up, rack up, build up, scrape together, hoard, lay in, lay up, garner

  View synonyms

  1. 1.1Achieve a particular score in a game or match.
     ‘North Carolina ran up a 62–44 lead’
     More example sentences

     • ‘With the wind behind them they ran up a score of 2 - 14 to 0 - 3 at half time.’
     • ‘Imran Farhat and Taufeeq Umar played together 15 times and ran up 754 runs at an impressive average of 50.27 per innings.’
     • ‘Danny Hennesey and Bob Wrigglesworth hit a flurry of boundaries as Drax looked like running up a mammoth score against Heworth.’
• 2run something up, run up somethingMake something quickly or hurriedly, especially a piece of clothing.

  ‘I'll run up a dress for you’

  More example sentences

  • ‘From running designs up on sewing machines at the back of the shop, Stephen soon grew to be a large-scale manufacturer.’
  • ‘He was obsessed by her looks, to the extent of commissioning designers to run up body-hugging dresses for her.’
  • ‘Watching musicals as a child sparked her interest, and she had her mother run up a Sound of Music dress to wear in a talent show at school.’
  • ‘I'm actually planning on getting Betty to run her up some more suitable clothing.’
• 3run something up, run up somethingRaise a flag.

  ‘they ran up the star and crescent’

  More example sentences

  • ‘The Americans put their emergency plans into operation, ran the American flag up over the house and settled down to wait things out.’
  • ‘The bell at the Empire Hotel would ring at midday and a flag would be run up the pub's flag-pole to indicate the postponement of the match.’
  • ‘Someone's even gone to the effort of digging out a flag with the college logo on it and run it up to half mast.’
  • ‘They responded on Saturday, flying a journalist to the rock by helicopter, ripping down the Hellenic stripes and running up the star and crescent.’
  • ‘It was the law of the sea that the warship responded in kind by running up her own colours and identity.’