add up

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add up (third-person singular simple present adds up, present participle adding up, simple past and past participle added up)

1. (transitive) To take a sum.

   Add up the prices and find out how much it will cost.

2. (intransitive) To accumulate; to amount to.

   If you can save even a couple of dollars per day, it will add up to a lot over a year.

3. (idiomatic, intransitive) To make sense; to be reasonable or consistent.

   His story just doesn't add up. Why would he have been at the restaurant the day before the event?

• (take a sum): sum up, tally; see also Thesaurus:summate
• (amount to): accrue, mount up; see also Thesaurus:accumulate
• (make sense): compute, hang together