Word.ws English Dictionary

sewing up

sewing up is the present participle and gerund of sew up.

Meaning of sew up

Verb

sew up (third-person singular simple present sews up, present participle sewing up, simple past sewed up, past participle sewn up)

  1. (transitive) To seal by sewing.
    • Amongst the Narrinyeri in South Australia men of the Snake clan sometimes catch snakes, pull out their teeth or sew up their mouths, and keep them as pets.1887, James George Frazer, Totemism, page 14
  2. (figuratively, transitive) To bring a matter to a full conclusion that deals with all outstanding issues or other concerns.
    • Threatening to veto the Berkshire offer suggests the fund doesn't have the financing sewn up and is stalling for time.2017 August 17, Lauren Silva Laughlin, “In Battle Over Texas Utility, Elliott Is Grasping at Straws”, in New York Times, retrieved 25 Aug 2018

Questions about sewing up

What is sewing up the present participle and gerund of?
Sewing up is the present participle and gerund of sew up.

Words near sewing up in the dictionary

  1. sewing machines
  2. sewing needle
  3. sewing needles
  4. sewing room
  5. sewing rooms
  6. sewing up
  7. sewing-machine
  8. sewing-machine music
  9. sewing-machines
  10. sewings
  11. sewins

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sewing up (page history and authors); sew 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.

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