live up

live up verb: to fulfil the expectations placed upon one.

Verb

live up (third-person singular simple present lives up, present participle living up, simple past and past participle lived up)

(idiomatic, intransitive, with-to) To fulfil the expectations placed upon one.
- She never lived up to her reputation.
- The holidays didn't live up to the advertiser's claims.
(idiomatic, obsolete) To spend money on one's lifestyle to the exact limit of a specific budget or revenue, leaving nothing for savings.
- 'But it is not to be imagined that she lives up to her income. Few people of common prudence will do that; and whatever she saves, she will be able to dispose of.'1811, [Jane Austen], chapter XI, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume II, London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC

Seeing A-listers in the aisles makes Frieze seem sexier than most fairs, placing added pressure on galleries to live up to the sponsorship provided by high-end fashion brands and luxury goods.2023 October 7, Gregor Muir, “Frieze turns 20”, in FT Weekend (Collecting section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 2:
Ursula von der Leyen, who heads the executive arm of the 27-nation European Union, said: “This is Europe’s moment and we must live up to it.”2025 March 4, Marc Santora, quoting Ursula von der Leyen, “Ukraine Races to Salvage U.S. Alliance After Trump Halts Aid”, in The New York...

third-person singular present	lives up
present participle	living up
past participle	lived up
past	lived up

What does live up mean?: Live up means to fulfil the expectations placed upon one.
What is live up in Arabic?: Live up in Arabic is ارتقى إلى, كان في مستوى. See Live up meaning in Arabic.
How do you use live up in a sentence?: Seeing A-listers in the aisles makes Frieze seem sexier than most fairs, placing added pressure on galleries to live up to the sponsorship provided by high-end fashion brands and luxury goods.
What part of speech is live up?: Live up is a verb.
What is the past tense of live up?: The past tense of live up is lived up.

Adapted from Wiktionary: live 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: 2026-09-02

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