Word.ws English Dictionary

sewn up

sewn up is the past participle of sew up.

Adjective

sewn up (comparative more sewn up, superlative most sewn up)

  1. Sealed by sewing.
  2. Brought to a full conclusion.
  3. (slang) Worn out; exhausted.

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

Forms of sewn up

comparativemore sewn up
superlativemost sewn up

Questions about sewn up

What does sewn up mean?
Sewn up means sealed by sewing.
What is sewn up the past participle of?
Sewn up is the past participle of sew up.
What part of speech is sewn up?
Sewn up is an adjective.

Words near sewn up in the dictionary

  1. sewins
  2. sewist
  3. sewists
  4. sewless
  5. sewn
  6. sewn up
  7. Sewri
  8. sewround
  9. sewrounds
  10. sews
  11. sews up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sewn 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: “sewn up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sewn_up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.