Word.ws English Dictionary

brought up the rear

brought up the rear is the simple past and past participle 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 brought up the rear

What is brought up the rear the simple past and past participle of?
Brought up the rear is the simple past and past participle of bring up the rear.

Words near brought up the rear in the dictionary

  1. brought together
  2. brought under
  3. brought up
  4. brought up against
  5. brought up short
  6. brought up the rear
  7. brought up to
  8. brought up to a bitter
  9. brought upon
  10. brought with
  11. broughten

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: brought 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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