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Glite Dictionary
🚶 To approach 📏 To match standards
to come up to

to come up to

184 2.2
To go up to someone to speak to them
  • phrasal verb
  • /kʌm ʌp tu/
translation icon : acercarse a
  • I was going to go in, but a young lady came up to me, asked me for my autograph.
  • come up to say
  • people come up to
  • women come up to

And it they're just like, they'll come up to you stroke it.

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Examples

  • I've had thousands and thousands of people come up to me after events.

  • A woman came up to me with her baby, who was suffering from a terrible rash.

    Academic text (2015)

  • And they came up to him and they knew his name.

    Julian Dorey

  • If you wanna see what I can do with wood, come up to my place.

    WWJD II: The Woodcarver (2012)

  • "Would you like me to come up to the house with you?"

    Fiction book (1990)

  • And then she came up to me and she kissed me on my cheek and I gave her every dollar I had.

    Los Angeles (2021)

  • The chairman of the Afro-American Studies department came up to the couch and introduced himself.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • Dwyane Wade comes up to me and I get this tap on my shoulder.

    Club Shay Shay

  • And your fellow peers come up to you and they're like, you're great.

  • Several fans came up to me after the show to express their gratitude.

Synonyms

to come up
vsto come up to
520 1.7

To move closer to a person or place

is used when the approach especially aims to begin speaking to someone
to sneak up
vsto come up to
101 4.5

To move quietly toward someone or something without being noticed

is an open approach often with the intention to speak
to accost
vsto come up to
24 8.0

Go up to someone and speak to them in a bold or aggressive way

is a neutral approach mainly aimed at speaking not aggression
to strike up a conversation
vsto come up to
12 3.0

Start talking to someone you do not know well

is mainly about physically approaching someone more than just starting speech
to sidle up
vsto come up to
4 7.6

To move close to someone quietly to pretend to be friendly and get their favour

is a general approach not done in a quiet or insincere way

Antonyms

to avoid
∞ 1.0

To stay away from something or not do it to stop something bad from happening

to ignore
∞ 1.0

Choose not to pay attention to someone or something

How Close

to come up to
184 2.2
to come near
56 1.8
to approach
316 3.0
to stand back
159 1.6

Surface Forms

come up to infinitive
coming up to present participle
comes up to third person singular
came up to past
come up to past participle

Morphology

come + up + to

The sense 'to reach or meet a required standard' is built from 'come' (arrive/approach) + 'up' (movement toward/completion) + 'to' (toward a target), so learners can often infer a meaning of 'approach/reach' the target. However, the leap from physical approaching to the abstract idea of 'satisfying expectations' is a metaphorical extension that may not be fully predictable for a B1 learner without prior exposure, making it only partially transparent.

Etymology

Come up to paints a simple picture of someone walking forward until they are near another person; the verb come and the particle up show moving closer. So, it means 'to approach' or 'to speak to' someone.