English

Verb

turn up ‎(third-person singular simple present turns up, present participle turning up, simple past and past participle turned up)

1. (intransitive) To show up; to appear suddenly or unexpectedly.

   Is this your pencil that turned up in my drawer?

   I don't like people turning up without an appointment.

   • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses Episode 16

     Highly providential was the appearance on the scene of Corny Kelleher when Stephen was blissfully unconscious but for that man in the gap turning up at the eleventh hour the finis might have been that he might have been a candidate for the accident ward...

2. (transitive) To cause to appear; to find by searching, etc.

   I spent hours in the archives, but couldn't turn up anything on the alleged criminal.

3. (transitive) To increase the amount of something by means of a control, such as the volume, heat, or light.

   Turn up the radio and sing along.

4. (transitive) To reposition by rotating, flipping, etc. upwards.

   He turned up his collar against the cold.

5. (transitive, nautical) To belay or make fast a line on a cleat or pin.

   Turn up the main halyard.

Usage notes

• In senses 2, 3 and 4 the object is normally a thing, not a person. It may appear before or after the particle. If the object is a pronoun, then it must be before the particle.

Antonyms

• (increase): turn down

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

turn up ‎(plural turn ups)

1. A stroke of good luck. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Anagrams

• upturn