pull up

See also: pullup and pull-up

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Verb

pull up (third-person singular simple present pulls up, present participle pulling up, simple past and past participle pulled up)

1. Used other than with a figurative or idiomatic meaning: see pull,‎ up.
   1. (transitive, intransitive) Lift upwards or vertically.

      I pull up the lever when I want to make my car go into first gear.

   2. Pull forward.

      Pull up a bench and have a seat.

      Pull the car up a little so you don't block his driveway.

      Pull up a little so you don't block his driveway.

2. (idiomatic) Retrieve; get.

   Pull up that website for me, it looks quite interesting.

3. (idiomatic) Drive close towards something, especially a curb.

   Pull up to that curb slowly; you don't want to scratch that other car.

   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 5, in The Celebrity:

     We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine. […] As we reached the lodge we heard the whistle, and we backed up against one side of the platform as the train pulled up at the other.

   • 2009, Kesha, Tik Tok

     I'm talking pedicure on our toes, toes / Trying on all our clothes, clothes / Boys blowing up our phones, phones / Drop-topping, playing our favorite CD / Pulling up to the parties / Trying to get a little bit tipsy.

4. (informal, transitive) To admonish or criticize (a person) for their actions.
   • 2014, April De Angelis, Wild East

     My coursework began to suffer and my parents pulled me up on it and said we are not paying for you to get off your head every night.

Translations

lift vertically

• Esperanto: kuspi (eo)
• French: soulever (fr)
• Irish: tarraing suas

• Maori: kōwhiti
• Spanish: alzar (es), levantar (es)
• Portuguese: puxar para cima