Bubble-up
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A culvert that is open to the air on top.
"This amount of cleaning is estimated to take ten months with the remaining two months being devoted to cleaning catch basins, depressed culverts (bubble-ups) , storm drain siphons, wash rack sumps, and so forth."
- 2 A commotion or controversy.
"Virtual teams are formed to champion specific ideas and keep them alive in the memory. Bubble-ups and meltdowns, of course, require reconstructions and maintenance."
- 3 Something that causes effervescence.
"Use it in the bath or shower. Instead of bath oils, bubble-ups, moisturizers. Instead of a bar of soap!"
- 4 An act or process of bubbling up.
"The Times did say the tax credit may, and I repeat, may, create more jobs in the long run, but the five million unemployed are not interested in the long run. They want jobs now. They cannot wait to see if they will benefit from this latest trickle-down. What they want, you see, is now a little trickle-up. They want some bubble-up."
Example
More examples"This amount of cleaning is estimated to take ten months with the remaining two months being devoted to cleaning catch basins, depressed culverts (bubble-ups) , storm drain siphons, wash rack sumps, and so forth."
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.