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Glite Dictionary
to filter up

to filter up

1 7.4
Information moves up from lower-level workers to higher-level managers
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : filtrarse hacia arriba
  • It starts down on the local level, and if you want real change that will eventually filter up and impact Washington, you start there.

Once you stabilize them in their housing, everything else kind of filters up from there.

Examples

  • Their laughter filters up to her.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • But popular US Zionism remains a problem that filters up to the White House through many channels, further steering policy on the Middle East.

    Blog text (29)

  • Your customers hope that by telling you of their displeasure, it will filter up to the decision makers and a change will be made.

    Blog text (3)

  • All the while, most of the profits filter up to the Rothschild's empire.

    Blog text (21)

  • Information could flow the other way as well, with feedback loops built into training and customer service so that information about the technicians and their tasks would filter up to company executives.

    Academic text (2012)

  • Mr. Petraeus was well known for sending emails to lower-ranking officers to get a sense of what was happening on the ground instead of relying on reports that filtered up the chain of command.

    Blog text (29)

  • If the feedback from employees does not filter up to management, little will change in the company.

  • The suggestions made by the team members must filter up to the upper management for any chance of implementation.

  • In a healthy organization, important insights tend to filter up from the staff to the executives regularly.

Synonyms

to move up
vsto filter up
43 2.0

Go to a higher place or level

sends information from lower staff toward higher managers within an organization

Antonyms

to filter down
5 4.6

To pass information or choices from higher levels to lower ones so more people get them

How High

to escalate
220 5.5
to filter up
1 7.4
to report
686 1.6

Surface Forms

filter up infinitive
filtered up past
filtered up past participle
filtering up present participle
filters up third person singular

Morphology

filter + up

The components 'filter' (to pass through selectively) and 'up' (toward a higher level) together give a clear cue that something is being passed upward in a selective way, so a learner can infer the general idea. However, using 'filter' metaphorically for information or influence moving through organizational levels is an extension of the physical sense and may not be fully predictable to a B1 learner without prior exposure.

Etymology

Filter up may come from the image of small bits of news or complaints moving slowly through many layers, like water passing through a filter and rising up to the top. So it means 'to move from lower to higher levels' in an organization.