OWN UP

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does own up mean? 

• OWN UP (verb)
  The verb OWN UP has 1 sense:

1. admit or acknowledge a wrongdoing or error

  Familiarity information: OWN UP used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OWN UP (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Admit or acknowledge a wrongdoing or error

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

fess up; make a clean breast of; own up

Context example:

the writer of the anonymous letter owned up after they identified his handwriting

Hypernyms (to "own up" is one way to...):

concede; confess; profess (admit (to a wrongdoing))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

 Context examples 

Cap'n Smollett's a fine seaman, as I'll own up to any day, but stiff on discipline.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

You’ve made a silly blunder, and you may as well own up to it.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But I'll own up fairly, I've the shakes upon me for the gallows.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)