Word.ws English Dictionary

showing up

showing up is the present participle and gerund of show up.

Meaning of show up

Verb

show up (third-person singular simple present shows up, present participle showing up, simple past showed up, past participle shown up)

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To appear, arrive, or attend, especially suddenly or erratically.
    • Please come on time; don't just show up whenever you feel like it.
    Synonyms:
    turn up
  2. (idiomatic, intransitive) To be easily visible; to be conspicuous.
    • Stains really show up on this white tablecloth.
  3. (idiomatic, transitive) To make visible; to expose.
    • This bright light shows up the dust in the corners of the room.
  4. (idiomatic, transitive) To make visible or expose faults and deficiencies in, usually by outdoing, outperforming, or outcompeting another.
    • I finished in five minutes and she showed me up by finishing in three.
  5. (dated, idiomatic, intransitive) To produce an impression on observers; to come off.
    • A pleasing countenance showing above a suit of clothes is attractive and makes the suit show up well, while a face with a blank expression is likely to make a man say to himself, "Well if that man's clothes is going to make me look like that I don't want any of them."1910 October, “For Artistic Effects”, in National Lithographer

Questions about showing up

What is showing up the present participle and gerund of?
Showing up is the present participle and gerund of show up.

Words near showing up in the dictionary

  1. showing someone one's etchings
  2. showing someone the door
  3. showing someone the ropes
  4. showing the flag
  5. showing the way
  6. showing up
  7. showing who's boss
  8. showing who's the boss
  9. showing willing
  10. showing-off
  11. showings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: showing up (page history and authors); show 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: “showing up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/showing_up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.