add up

add up idiom
  1. Amount to an expected or correct total, as in These figures don't add up, meaning they are not correct. [Mid-1800s]
  2. Be consistent, make sense, as in I'm not sure that all this testimony will add up. [First half of 1900s]
  3. Assess, form an opinion of, as in He looked across the track and added up the competition. Also see add up to.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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