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to bubble up

to bubble up

19 3.7
To move up in bubbles or appear suddenly
  • phrasal verb
  • /ˈbʌbəl ʌp/
translation icon : burbujear (literal)
  • There's something powerful bubbling up inside me, Father.

And now after two passes, I've effectively bubbled up the next biggest number.

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Examples

  • All the times that there have been major social revolutions, they bubbled up from the bottom.

  • Many innovative ideas bubble up in laboratories and even attract early-stage venture capital funding.

    Academic text (2011)
  • What pieces of advice bubble up that you would have for for young men and young women?

  • And so that old story starts to bubble up again because it's familiar.

  • I think that, you know, those market solutions to those types of things tend to, you know, bubble up the good ideas.

  • I am seeing it bubbling up many, many different places.

  • And as you continue to breathe in and out, slowly become aware of the thoughts that bubble up in your mind.

  • It's like everything that was ever repressed in this town is suddenly bubbling up through the ground.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • Spending was easy because there was no end to the useful and imaginative initiatives bubbling up in the department.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • As the water heated, small bubbles began to bubble up from the bottom of the pot.

Synonyms

to come up
vsto bubble up
571 2.2

To move from below to a higher place, like a diver rising to the surface

is about small rising pockets of gas or feelings appearing after being hidden
to rise up
vsto bubble up
33 3.9

Move up through a liquid to the surface

is about small rising pockets of gas or feelings becoming noticeable
to bubble
vsto bubble up
32 1.0

To make small round pockets of air appear in a liquid

often refers to these movements or feelings appearing after being hidden
to arise
vsto bubble up
8 2.7

Move up into the air like smoke or mist

is broader, covering small rising pockets of gas and feelings, not just air movement
3.5

Show so much excitement that you cannot hide it

is about movements or feelings appearing after hiding, not overflowing joy

Antonyms

1.0

To stop being seen or to no longer be there

258 1.0

To go down below the surface of water and become underwater

How Noticeable

to erupt
123 4.2
to gush
26 3.2
to emerge
249 3.5
to surface
143 3.9
to bubble up
19 3.7
to well up
23 5.2

Surface Forms

bubble up infinitive
bubbled up past
bubbled up past participle
bubbling up present participle
bubbles up third person singular

Morphology

bubble + up

The primary sense (liquid or gas forming bubbles and moving upward) is directly compositional from 'bubble' (to form/release bubbles) + 'up' (toward a higher place). The figurative use (feelings or ideas ‘bubbling up’) is an image-based, cross-linguistically common extension of the physical sense, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

The verb bubble up comes from the simple picture of small bubbles moving up through water or steam and reaching the surface. So when a feeling or idea bubble up, it suddenly rises from inside and 'becomes noticed'.