to bring up
3
3.3
- phrasal verb
- /brɪŋ ʌp/
:
ascender a
- After years of hard work, Peter was finally brought up from an intern to a full-time manager.
Examples
-
The coach decided to bring me up to varsity as a third stringer.
Blog text (18) -
The story goes they brought him up to the majors.
-
That year, the Cincinnati Reds brought up two Cuban players: Rafael Almeida and his interpreter, Armando Marsans.
Academic text (1994) -
Indeed, within a year following his rookie season, the Giants brought up another budding star, Willie McCovey, who himself won the Rookie of the Year award in 1959, and platooned him with Cepeda at first base.
Academic text (1994) -
The company decided to bring up the best performer from the junior team to lead the new project.
-
She was thrilled when the committee chose to bring up her colleague to a senior position after the recent reorganization.
Synonyms
182
2.9
Give someone a higher job or rank
154
2.7
To move to a higher job or position
52
4.4
To give someone a higher job or rank
43
2.0
Go to a higher place or level
39
4.4
To move up to a more important job or position
38
2.7
To move someone to a higher job or rank
23
3.6
To give someone a higher job or rank
7
2.1
To lift something or someone to a higher place
5
1.6
To rise to a higher position, for example at work or on music charts
To give someone a higher job immediately without following normal steps
Promote someone to a higher job to move them out of a key role
Antonyms
How High
Surface Forms
Morphology
There is a clear compositional link: 'bring' (move/cause to come) + 'up' (to a higher position) creates a spatial metaphor of raising someone, which can cue the idea of promotion. However, the occupational/promotion sense is a metaphorical extension rather than a literal motion, so a B1 learner might infer it in context but would not always predict this specific usage without exposure.
Etymology
Bring up meaning to promote comes from lifting someone to a higher level: to bring a player or worker up from a lower team or rank is like raising them up, so the phrase means 'to promote'.