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Glite Dictionary
to follow up on

to follow up on

95 3.8
Take more action to check or finish something after first contact
  • phrasal verb
  • /ˈfɑloʊ ʌp ɑn/
translation icon : hacer un seguimiento de
  • She decided to follow up on her initial interview with a phone call to express her interest.
  • follow up on queries
  • follow up on recommendations
  • follow up on comments

But then you'll find that they don't follow up on the contacts you made for them.

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Examples

  • More research is clearly needed to follow up on the findings of the present study.

    Academic text (2001)

  • I wanted to follow up on the e-mail I sent you...

    Super Size Me (2004)

  • OK, can I can I follow up on that point now?

  • But I, I followed up on that and then we spoke and I agreed.

  • You want me to follow up on that lead?

    Small Apartments (2012)

  • Two years later, he returned to follow up on the earlier discovery.

    Academic text (2011)

  • You can have your computer remind you to follow up on a message you have sent.

    Academic text (1993)

  • We got a stack of missing person reports to follow up on.

    Renfield (2023)

  • Well, I'm just following up on that correspondence.

    Raising Buchanan (2019)

  • Marsha, I want to follow up on a topic that you just mentioned.

Synonyms

to pursue
vsto follow up on
∞ 3.5

To try to get something you want, like a job or a goal

focuses on checking or continuing after initial contact rather than a long chase
to follow up
vsto follow up on
197 3.6

To take further action after something starts to make sure it finishes or succeeds

takes further action specifically after initial contact to check or continue

Antonyms

to ignore
∞ 1.0

Choose not to pay attention to someone or something

How Thoroughly

to follow up on
95 3.8
to check
16 1.5
to disregard
119 3.9

Surface Forms

follow up on infinitive
followed up on past
followed up on past participle
following up on present participle
follows up on third person singular

Morphology

follow + up + on

The sense 'to take further action concerning something' is visibly related to 'follow' (to pursue) combined with the particle 'up' (indicating completion or continuation) and the preposition 'on' (marking the target). However, the exact pragmatic sense of pursuing or checking after an initial contact is a conventionalized phrasal-verb pattern that is not fully predictable from the parts for a B1 learner, so partial compositionality with some idiomatic constraint applies.

Etymology

Follow up on comes from the simple image of going after something a second time: you follow the first step and then go up to handle what is left. So, to follow up on an email, question, or complaint means to 'check', 'continue', or 'take further action' after the first contact.