Meaning of build up in English

Table of contents

Verb
build up
Definitions
1. enlarge, develop, or increase by degrees or in stages
Examples
- « build up your savings »
Derived terms
- buildup
2. form or accumulate steadily
Examples
- « Resistance to the manager's plan built up quickly »
- « Pressure is building up at the Indian-Pakistani border »
Derived terms
- advancement
- progress
3. prepare oneself for a military confrontation
Examples
- « The U.S. is girding for a conflict in the Middle East »
- « troops are building up on the Iraqui border »
Antonyms
Derived terms
4. bolster or strengthen
Examples
- « We worked up courage »
- « build up confidence »
- « ramp up security in the airports »
5. change the use of and make available or usable
Examples
- « develop land »
- « The country developed its natural resources »
- « The remote areas of the country were gradually built up »
Derived terms

Famous quotes

« If you build up the soil with organic material, the plants will do just fine. »
John Harrison
« Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong. »
Calvin Coolidge
« Of course, I'd like to produce and direct a blockbuster, but you gotta build up to that. So now I'm learning from a bunch of little movies. And it's more fun with smaller pictures. It's more creative. »
Lea Thompson
« Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered. »
W. Somerset Maugham
« There are no college courses to build up self-esteem or high school or elementary school. If you don't get those values at a early age, nurtured in your home, you don't get them. »
T. D. Jakes