sum up phrasal verb ( see also ↑ sum )
1 . to give the main information in a report, speech etc in a short statement at the end SYN summarize :
Gerald will open the debate and I will sum up.
to sum up
To sum up, for a healthy heart you must take regular exercise and stop smoking.
sum something ↔ up
In your final paragraph, sum up your argument.
2 . when a judge sums up or sums up the case at the end of a ↑ trial , he or she explains the main facts of the case ⇨ ↑ summing-up
3 . sum something ↔ up to describe something using only a few words SYN summarize :
The city’s problem can be summed up in three words: too many people.
4 . sum something ↔ up to show the most typical qualities of someone or something:
That image sums up the whole film.
5 . sum somebody/something ↔ up to form a judgment or opinion about someone or something SYN assess :
Pat summed up the situation at a glance.
6 . that (about) sums it up spoken used to say that a description of a situation is correct:
‘So you want us to help you change but you don’t believe change is possible?’ ‘That about sums it up.’