idiom · neutral
come up trumps
/kʌm ʌp trʌmps/come·up·TRUMPS
speaking
to succeed or produce a good result unexpectedly or when needed
Examples
“We were short-staffed, but the new intern came up trumps and finished the report.”
“The final speaker came up trumps and saved the conference with a great talk.”
“When the software crashed, the backup system came up trumps and everything was restored.”
Band 8 sentence
“When our experiment failed, the alternate method came up trumps and produced publishable results.”
Collocations
- come up trumps when needed
- come up trumps in a pinch
Word family
trump noun (card), verb (informal)come up trumps phrase
Common mistakes
come up with trumps→come up trumps
come up triumph→come up trumps
Say it for a higher band
5succeed→6do well unexpectedly→7+come up trumps
Synonyms
prove successful
Easily confused
save the day
“Her quick thinking really saved the day.”
Related words
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In Success
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