Word.ws English Dictionary

end up

end up verb: to bring to a conclusion.

Verb

end up (third-person singular simple present ends up, present participle ending up, simple past and past participle ended up)

  1. (transitive) To bring to a conclusion.
    • The band usually ends up their concerts with their biggest hit song.
  2. (copulative) To come to a final place, condition, or situation, sometimes unplanned or unexpected; to turn out.
    • They ended up angry at each other.
    • He ended up as an insurance agent.
    Synonyms:
    wind up, turn out
  3. (transitive) To lift or tilt, so as to set on end.
    • to end up a hogshead

Synonyms of end up

All synonyms of end up

Forms of end up

third-person singular presentends up
present participleending up
past participleended up
pastended up

Questions about end up

What does end up mean?
End up means to bring to a conclusion.
What part of speech is end up?
End up is a verb.
What is the past tense of end up?
The past tense of end up is ended up.

Words near end up in the dictionary

  1. end states
  2. end table
  3. end tables
  4. end times
  5. end titles
  6. end up
  7. end user
  8. end user license agreement
  9. end user license agreements
  10. end users
  11. end zone

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: end up (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-end up.ogg.

Cite this entry: “end up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/end_up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.