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Glite Dictionary
📈 To rise slowly 🚶 To move forward
to edge up

to edge up

2 4.5
Rise slowly by a small amount, often for prices or temperatures
  • phrasal verb
  • /ɛdʒ ʌp/
translation icon : aumentar
  • Google shares edged up 2.2% in after-hours trading.
  • edged up 1 percent
  • edged up slightly
  • prices edged up

Examples

  • The civilian labor force rose by 578,000 to 155.6 million in October, and the labor force participation rate edged up to 63.8 percent.

    Blog text (12)

  • The forward P/E edged up to 12.2 from an 18-month low of 12.0 and is up from a 23-year low of 9.5 in November 2008, but is down from a 27-month high of 15.1 in October 2009.

    Blog text (23)

  • With rates near record lows, you might be able to afford more house now than you would be able to in the spring when rates are expected to edge up.

    Blog text (33)

  • Amazon's Kindle Fire edges up in the tablet race.

    Blog text (23)

  • Craig watched the speedometer edge up past thirty-one kilometers per hour.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • The number of patent-related lawsuits edged up by about four percent in 2010 to 2,853 in the United States.

    Blog text (26)

  • Gold edged up $0.50 or 0.06% yesterday and closed at $1,709.50.

    Blog text (21)

  • Apple shares edged up 0.11% to $663.95 in after-hours trading after the news.

    Blog text (21)

  • The rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage (FRM), based on Freddie Mac data, edged up 5 bps the past two weeks to 4.37% from 4.32%, a low for the series going back to 1972.

    Blog text (23)

  • The unemployment rate edged up to 4% from 3.9% after the recent economic changes.

Synonyms

to ramp
vsto edge up
57 4.5

To increase something gradually in stages

is used for only small slight increases rather than staged growth
to inch up
vsto edge up
5 4.2

To go up slowly in small amounts

is mainly used for small rises in prices amounts or rates

Antonyms

to drop
∞ 1.0

To fall to a lower amount or level

How Much

to soar
96 3.4
to rise
904 1.0
to increase
∞ 1.0
to edge up
2 4.5

Surface Forms

edge up infinitive
edged up past
edged up past participle
edging up present participle
edges up third person singular

Morphology

edge + up

The verb 'edge' (to move cautiously a little at a time) plus the particle 'up' (to increase) composes directly into the sense 'increase slowly or slightly.' This is a predictable motion→increase metaphor common in English (and paralleled in many languages), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Edge up is a phrasal verb used for numbers or prices that gives the picture of a value sliding a tiny bit along an edge and moving up step by step. So it means 'to increase slowly or by a small amount'.