phrasal verb · neutral
run up (a bill)
/rʌn ʌp/RUN·up
speakingtask2
to cause an amount of debt or bills to increase
Examples
“They ran up a huge phone bill while travelling abroad.”
“If you keep buying gadgets, you’ll run up debt quickly.”
“He ran up several unpaid bills last year.”
Band 8 sentence
“While studying abroad I accidentally ran up a few unexpected bills, but I managed to clear them later.”
Collocations
- run up a bill/debt/costs
Word family
run up phrasal verbrun-up noun (ví dụ: the run-up to the exam)
Common mistakes
They ran up a bill many.→They ran up a large bill.
I run up debts last month.→I ran up debts last month.
Say it for a higher band
5borrow→6incur→7+run up
Synonyms
incur
Easily confused
incur
“The company incurred significant costs during the project.”
Related words
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In run …
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