grow up

Dissimilated from Middle English upgrowen.

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grow up (third-person singular simple present grows up, present participle growing up, simple past grew up, past participle grown up)

1. (intransitive) To mature and become an adult.

   What do you want to be when you grow up?

   Attila grew up a nomad on the plains of Hungary

   • 2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques: Evesham (1870)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 58:

     I'm in the place where I grew up, where my alma mater is.

2. (intransitive) To start to develop; to flourish.

   Socialism grew up in the industrial cities.

3. (intransitive, idiomatic) To stop acting as or like a child (often used as an imperative interjection).

   Will you grow up please, and stop making silly faces?

• (to mature): age, upgrow; see also Thesaurus:to age
• (to start to develop): blossom, prosper

• grown up

grow up

1. (imperative) Used to criticize childish behavior, especially that considered unreasonable for one's age.

   You're giggling because I said "butt"? Grow up, seriously.

   Grow up! The Bible is nothing more than a astrotheological allegory for things like the Sun!

• upgrow