ring up

present singular third person rings up · participle present ringing up · past rang up · participle past rung up

1. idiomatictransitiveTo telephone; to call someone on the telephone.

   "I was just going ashore to ring you up."

   1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 4

   2 more examples

   Malone at once rang up Lord Roxton, and soon heard the familiar voice.

   1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019

   "I'm going to ring up the doctor in a moment, but remember, that partnership has got to be signed first."

   1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 98

2. transitiveTo enter (a payment) into a cash register, or till in a shop, or record a credit- or debit-card payment.

   Just ring up these items first. You can ring up those separately.

   1 more example

   He took out his wallet and gave her a pound note and a ten-shilling note. She rang up the sum on the till, snapped the notes into their little clip, shut the drawer.

   1953, Jerrard Tickell, The Dart Players, page 21

3. transitiveTo record the payment of.

   I'll take these. You can ring me up.

   1 more example

   The cashier took a long time to ring him up.

4. transitiveTo make an adverse official decision concerning (a person).

   Tommy Connolly, perhaps recalling Jones's earlier argumentativeness, rung him up — too close to take.

   2004, Michael Coffey, 27 Men Out: Baseball's Perfect Games, page 31

   3 more examples

   Munson appeared to have taken Billy's exhortation on aggressiveness to heart. Umpire Jim McKean rung him up on strikes at one point in the game, so Thurman bumped him in anger.

   2001, Christopher Devine, Thurman Munson: A Baseball Biography, page 184

   Marcos had rung him up on trumped-up charges. From his cell, Aquino led the People's Power movement and ran for president despite being incarcerated.

   2010, Gary Poole, PacMan: Behind the Scenes with Manny Pacquiao, page 27

   During the game I gave the coach of one team, St. Ann's, a technical foul for coming on the court during the action. When I rung him up one of his players took the basketball and slammed it to the court, it bounced about 15 feet high. Bingo, another technical.

   2010, Dennis E. Ekardt, Every Life Is A Story and This Is Mine: A Memoir and Recollections, page 251

5. To rouse by the ringing of a bell.

   Synonyms: call, call up, phone, ring

6. ball gamesTo strikeout a batter and thereby send him or her back to the dugout.