show up

See also: show-up and showup

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

show up (third-person singular simple present shows up, present participle showing up, simple past showed up, past participle shown up)

1. (intransitive) To appear, arrive, or attend, especially suddenly or erratically.

   Please come on time; don't just show up whenever you feel like it.

   No matter how many I throw away, more copies always show up.

   • 2021 November 2, Jim Tankersley, Katie Rogers, Lisa Friedman, quoting Joe Biden, “With Methane and Forest Deals, Climate Summit Offers Hope After Gloomy Start”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     “We showed up. We showed up,” Mr. Biden said at a news conference at the United Nations summit on climate change, known as COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland. “The fact that China is trying to assert, understandably, a new role in the world as a world leader, not showing up? Huh. The single most important thing that’s gotten the attention of the world is climate.”

2. (intransitive) To be easily visible; to be conspicuous.

   Stains really show up on this white tablecloth.

3. (transitive) To make visible; to expose.

   This bright light shows up the dust in the corners of the room.

   I bet the Jayhawk fast break could show up the Nimrod's lack of speed.

4. (transitive, idiomatic) To make visible or expose faults and deficiencies in, usually by outdoing, outperforming, or outcompeting another.

   I finished in five minutes and she showed me up by finishing in three.

   • 2014 June 20, Daniel Taylor, “World Cup 2014: Uruguay sink England as Suárez makes his mark”, in guardian.co.uk:

     His team were not outclassed but, once again, England have reminded us of their habit of being shown up as soon as they face half-decent opposition and one or two authentic category-A footballers.

Usage notes

• In the sense of exposing faults, the object is normally a person rather than a thing.

Synonyms

• (appear): turn up

Related terms

• show off
• show out

Translations

to appear

• Bulgarian: показвам се (pokazvam se), идвам (bg) (idvam)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 露面 (zh) (lòumiàn, lùmiàn)

• Finnish: ilmestyä (paikalle)
• French: apparaître (fr), se montrer (fr) se pointer (fr)
• German: auftauchen (de), erscheinen (de)
• Hungarian: megjelenik (hu)
• Japanese: 現れる (ja) (あらわれる, arawareru)
• Macedonian: се појавува impf (se pojavuva), се појави pf (se pojavi)
• Polish: zjawiać się impf, zjawić się pf, pojawiać się impf, pojawić się pf
• Romanian: apărea (ro)
• Russian: (person) объявля́ться (ru) impf (obʺjavljátʹsja), объяви́ться (ru) pf (obʺjavítʹsja), (object) находи́ться (ru) impf (naxodítʹsja), найти́сь (ru) pf (najtísʹ); появля́ться (ru) impf (pojavljátʹsja), появи́ться (ru) pf (pojavítʹsja), пока́зываться (ru) impf (pokázyvatʹsja), показа́ться (ru) pf (pokazátʹsja)
• Spanish: aparecer (es)
• Swedish: dyka upp (sv)
• Turkish: ortaya çıkmak (tr)
• Ukrainian: з’являтися (uk) (zʺjavljatysja)

to expose

• Dutch: tentoonstellen (nl)
• Finnish: näyttää (fi)
• French: humilier (fr)
• German: sich zeigen
• Swedish: avslöja (sv), blottlägga (sv)
• Turkish: görünmek (tr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Portuguese: aparecer (pt)