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to mark up

to mark up

5 3.5
To raise the price of something so it sells for more money
  • phrasal verb
  • /mɑrk ʌp/
translation icon : aumentar el precio
  • Produce is often marked up as much as 75%.

But as demand gets more inelastic, the monopolist gains power to mark up the price and make money.

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Examples

  • The newspapers found that hospitals are routinely marking up prices on cancer drugs by two to ten times over cost.

    Blog text (30)
  • I buy it, mark it up, and sell it.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • We turn around and mark 'em up 30, 40%.

  • Once you establish this bottom line pricing, mark it up by 20%, and that becomes your rate.

    Blog text (13)
  • Some salad bar items are marked up more than 350 percent, according to Food Network Magazine.

    Blog text (8)
  • But as demand gets more inelastic, the monopolist gains power to mark up the price and make money.

  • Remember that self-employment taxes need to be considered, so maybe mark up your reserve price by 30-40%.

    Blog text (13)
  • Order by the glass, and you're sipping on an item marked up as much as 400 percent.

    Blog text (8)
  • Sell it everywhere, mark up in industrialized countries to help subsidize the poorer ones.

    Blog text (21)
  • The retailer decided to mark up the shoes by 20% to increase profit margins.

Synonyms

to inflate
vsto mark up
30 4.4

To make the amount or price of something increase

raises prices specifically to secure a profit rather than increasing value generally
to hike up the prices
vsto mark up
1 4.8

To raise prices by a large amount, often suddenly

raises prices deliberately to secure a profit rather than suddenly

Antonyms

6 2.5

To lower the price of something

How Expensive

to jack up
  • Informal
12 5.9
to mark up
5 3.5
hike
67 3.6

Surface Forms

mark up infinitive
marked up past
marked up past participle
marking up present participle
marks up third person singular

Morphology

mark + up

The particle 'up' clearly contributes the sense of raising/increasing, so part of the meaning is predictable; however the given lemma 'mark' (to label or identify) does not directly encode the commercial sense of setting a price, so the full sense 'increase the price' is not strictly derivable without exposure. This partial predictability (particle signals increase but head verb requires a specialized price-setting sense) makes the item only partially transparent to a B1 learner.

Etymology

The phrasal verb mark up likely comes from shopkeepers who wrote a new, higher price on an item's tag or label — they literally mark the price up. So, mark up means to 'increase the price', usually so the seller can make a profit.