If you sum something up, you describe it as briefly as possible.
One voter summed up the mood–'Politicians have lost credibility,' he complained. [VERBPARTICLE noun]
Obree summed his weekend up in one word: 'Disastrous.' [VERB noun PARTICLE]
2. phrasal verb
If something sums a person or situation up, it represents their most typical characteristics.
'I love my wife, my horse and my dog,' he said, and that summed him up. [VERB noun PARTICLE]
Sadly, the feud sums up the relationship between the two men. [VERBPARTICLE noun]
3. phrasal verb
If you sum up after a speech or at the end of a piece of writing, you briefly state the main points again. When a judge sums up after a trial, he or she reminds the jury of the evidence and the main arguments of the case they have heard.
When the judge summed up, it was clear he wanted a guilty verdict. [VERBPARTICLE]
To sum up: We welcome the statement of the Government and appreciate its willingnessand commitment to work cooperatively with us. [VERBPARTICLE]
4. See also summing-up
See full dictionary entry for sum
sum up in British English
verb(adverb)
1.
to summarize (feelings, the main points of an argument, etc)
the judge began to sum up
2. (transitive)
to form a quick opinion of
I summed him up in five minutes
sum up in American English
1.
to add up or collect into a whole or total
2.
to review briefly; summarize
See full dictionary entry for sum
sum-up in American English
(ˈsʌmˌʌp)
noun
Informal
the act or result of summarizing
Examples of 'sum up' in a sentence
sum up
The words sum up our religion and mean exactly what they say.
Hocke, Martin THE ANCIENT AND SOLITARY REIGN
Rapidly, Nick tried to sum up for himself what being married would mean.
Thomas, Rosie THE WHITE DOVE
The latter rather seemed to sum up Harold himself, Kate decided: studiously grey and unremarkable.
Parkes, Roger RIOT
You can either pay your exorbitant monthly bill in advance, or pay an even more exorbitant lump sum up front, which works like an annuity.
William Lashner FATAL FLAW (2003)
In other languages
sum up
British English: sum up /sʌm ʌp/ VERB
If you sum up or sum something up, you briefly describe the main features of something.
Well, to sum up, what is the message that you are trying to communicate?
American English: sum up
Arabic: يُلَخِّصُ
Brazilian Portuguese: resumir
Chinese: 总结
Croatian: rezimirati
Czech: shrnout stručně
Danish: opsummere
Dutch: opsommen
European Spanish: recapitular
Finnish: esittää yhteenveto
French: résumer
German: zusammenfassen
Greek: ανακεφαλαιώνω
Italian: riassumere
Japanese: 要約する
Korean: 요약하다
Norwegian: summere
Polish: zsumować
European Portuguese: resumir
Romanian: a totaliza
Russian: подводить итог
Latin American Spanish: recapitular
Swedish: räkna ihop
Thai: สรุปสาระ
Turkish: özetlemek
Ukrainian: підбивати підсумки
Vietnamese: tóm tắt
(phrasal verb)
When the judge summed up it was clear he wanted a guilty verdict.
Synonyms
summarize
To summarize, this is a clever approach to a common problem.
review
The next day we reviewed the previous day's work.
recapitulate
Let's just recapitulate the essential points.
close
I need another $30,000 to close the deal.
conclude
They concluded their annual summit meeting today.
put something in a nutshell
See sum
Additional synonyms
in the sense of close
Definition
(of agreements or deals) to complete or be completed successfully
I need another $30,000 to close the deal.
Synonyms
clinch,
confirm,
secure,
conclude,
seal,
verify,
sew up (informal),
close out,
set the seal on
in the sense of conclude
Definition
to come or bring to an end
They concluded their annual summit meeting today.
Synonyms
bring to an end,
end,
close,
finish,
complete,
wind up,
terminate,
round off
in the sense of recapitulate
Definition
to restate the main points of (an argument or speech)