What does “Run Up” mean? Are you using it correctly?

Learn more about this phrasal verb here and hear example sentences. Get started now!

Hi, my name is Jessica. I’m an English tutor.

And in today’s lesson on phrasal verbs, we’re going to talk about the phrasal verb “runup” or “ran up.”
So, let’s say you and a group of friends go out to a restaurant and you decide to buy a couple of drinks.

You may not realize at the end of the night that you “ran up” quite a large tab.

Maybe you spent a hundred dollars because of the extra cocktails that you had at dinner.

All right, so to “run up” could mean to have a very large bill, or to incur a lot of expenses.

So let’s say a young woman goes to the mall and decides to buy a whole new wardrobe.

She might “run up” a large credit card bill and have lots of charges on it.

So when she is talking to somebody about what she did, she might say,

“Wow! I really ran up a large credit card charge from all the shopping I have been doing.”

Well, I hope you found this video lesson on “run up” or “ran up” helpful,

and that you tune in again for more lessons with Jessica.

Have a wonderful day.

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