built-up

Adjective

built-up (comparative more built-up, superlative most built-up)

1. Made of sections or layers, one on top of the other.
   • Built-up weights in the wheels balance the revolving and 50 per cent of the reciprocating weight.1951 June, “British Railways Standard Class "5" 4-6-0 Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine, page 400
   • Lyness' built-up pilings were not high enough to keep the ground floor above water during this flood.2003, Roselynn Ederer, Saginaw County, Michigan
2. Having increased in size, quantity, or intensity over time; accumulated.
   • The stained-glass windows were cleaned; years of built-up soil removed from the murals; the wooden pews sanded and refinished, the kneeling benches covered with soft new carpeting.2008, Mary Higgins Clark, Where Are You Now?
   • His analytical method gradually strips away built-up defensive layers of the personality until we are able to see our true selves.2011, Ruth Snowden, Understanding Jung
3. Constructed or enhanced.
   • She picketed the skewbald paint with the others, then filled the coffeepot at the creek and started a fresh batch brewing on the built-up fire.2012, Tabor Evans, Longarm and the Sins of Laughing Lyle
   • World society, as Williams puts it, 'is something of which we need to be suspicious because of the risks that its pursuit may create for the painfully built-up and relatively fragile structures of order that exist among states.2012, J. Troy, Christian Approaches to International Affairs
4. Having buildings, especially having residences and high population density.
   • It was all more built-up, she claimed, more busy; and there were objects around which were new and unidentifiable.2012, SK Webb, The Deviant Apparition
   • As they left the built-up centre of Glasgow the buildings gradually thinned out, and there was a feeling of light and space that she had never experienced before.2012, Meg Henderson, Chasing Angels
5. (UK) (of an area of land) Having street lights and therefore subject to a 30 mph speed limit.
6. (Europe) (of an area of land) Having specific traffic signaling and therefore usually subject to a maximum 50 km/h speed limit.
   • He contended that the speed limit of 80 km/h on motorways, outside a built-up area, which concerns inter alia goods vehicles did not apply to such a vehicle, which is subject to the limits relating to passenger cars.
   • Contra-flow cycling is most often applied on basic cycle network links in low-speed local access roads, both within and outside the built-up area.