bring up

1. 1.

   summon into action or bring into existence, often as if by magic

   “raise the specter of unemployment”

   “he conjured wild birds in the air”

   “call down the spirits from the mountain”

   Synonymsraiseconjureconjure upinvokeevokestircall downarouseput forwardcall forth

   Broadercall up

   Narrowercursebless
2. 2.

   look after a child until it is an adult

   “raise a family”

   “bring up children”

   Synonymsrearraisenurtureparent

   Narrowerfledgecradlefoster
3. 3.

   promote from a lower position or rank

   “This player was brought up to the major league”

   Broaderpromote
4. 4.

   raise from a lower to a higher position

   “Raise your hands”

   “Lift a load”

   Synonymsraiseliftelevateget up

   Broadermove

   Narrowerget upjackshoulderkick uphoisttricepumplevitateunderlayskid
5. 5.

   cause to come to a sudden stop

   “The noise brought her up in shock”

   Broaderstop
6. 6.

   put forward for consideration or discussion

   “raise the question of promotions”

   “bring up an unpleasant topic”

   Synonymsraise

   Broadermention
7. 7.

   make reference to

   “His name was mentioned in connection with the invention”

   Synonymsmentionadvertcitenamerefer

   Broaderthink of

   Narrowercommendspeak of the devilrememberquotetouch oninvokenamedropraisedrag upcross-refer
8. 8.

   cause to load (an operating system) and start the initial processes

   “boot your computer”

   Synonymsbootreboot

   Broaderresuscitate

Questions about bring up

What does bring up mean?

bring up means "summon into action or bring into existence, often as if by magic". That is the primary sense; the word has 8 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for bring up?

Close synonyms include raise, conjure, conjure up, invoke, evoke. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is bring up a common word?

bring up is banded "Core" — among the few thousand words that carry most english. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.