live up

English

Verb

live up (third-person singular simple present lives up, present participle living up, simple past and past participle lived up)

1. (intransitive, followed by to) To fulfil the expectations placed upon one.

   She never lived up to her reputation.

   The holidays didn't live up to the advertiser's claims.

   • 2023 October 7, Gregor Muir, “Frieze turns 20”, in FT Weekend, Collecting, page 2:

     Seeing A-listers in the aisles makes Frieze seem sexier than most fairs, placing added pressure on galleries to live up to the sponsorship provided by high-end fashion brands and luxury goods.

   • 2025 March 4, Marc Santora, quoting Ursula von der Leyen, “Ukraine Races to Salvage U.S. Alliance After Trump Halts Aid”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Ursula von der Leyen, who heads the executive arm of the 27-nation European Union, said: “This is Europe’s moment and we must live up to it.”

Related terms

• live it up

Translations

to fulfil the expectations placed upon one

• Arabic: ارتقى إلى, كان في مستوى
• Azerbaijani: doğrultmaq
• Czech: splnit (cs), naplnit (cs), dostát, odpovídat (cs)
• Dutch: waarmaken (nl)
• Finnish: täyttää odotukset, olla (jonkin) veroinen
• French: être à la hauteur (fr)
• German: gerecht werden, halten (de)
• Italian: soddisfare le aspettative
• Latvian: attaisnot cerības
• Persian: برآورده کردن
• Polish: spełnić oczekiwania
• Russian: опра́вдывать (ru) impf (oprávdyvatʹ), оправда́ть (ru) pf (opravdátʹ)
• Spanish: estar a la altura, dar la talla (es), aprovechar (es)
• Swedish: leva upp till, göra skäl för

See also

• make good on