Word.ws English Dictionary

brings up the rear

brings up the rear is the third-person singular simple present indicative of bring up the rear.

Meaning of bring up the rear

Verb

bring up the rear (third-person singular simple present brings up the rear, present participle bringing up the rear, simple past and past participle brought up the rear)

  1. (idiomatic) To be last in a moving line of people, to walk or go behind others in a line.
    • As for the guides, they were debarred from the pleasure of discourse, the one being placed in the van, and the other obliged to bring up the rear.1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC
    Antonyms:
    lead the way

Questions about brings up the rear

What is brings up the rear the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Brings up the rear is the third-person singular simple present indicative of bring up the rear.

Words near brings up the rear in the dictionary

  1. brings together
  2. brings under
  3. brings up
  4. brings up against
  5. brings up short
  6. brings up the rear
  7. brings up to
  8. brings upon
  9. brings with
  10. bringsel
  11. bringsels

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: brings up the rear (page history and authors); bring up the rear (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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