"dial up" meaning in English

See dial up in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: dials up [present, singular, third-person], dialing up [US, participle, present], dialling up [UK, participle, present], dialed up [US, participle, past], dialed up [US, past], dialled up [UK, participle, past], dialled up [UK, past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*l}} dial up (third-person singular simple present dials up, present participle (US) dialing up or (UK) dialling up, simple past and past participle (US) dialed up or (UK) dialled up)
  1. To telephone, to call on the telephone. Synonyms: give a ring, phone, ring, ring up
    Sense id: en-dial_up-en-verb-8pvJTdTf
  2. To connect a computer to a modem.
    Sense id: en-dial_up-en-verb-Rw6botot
  3. To increase the level (of something) by turning a dial, or (figuratively) as if by turning a dial. Synonyms: ratchet up
    Sense id: en-dial_up-en-verb-btYXVimG Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English phrasal verbs formed with "up", Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 27 19 55 Disambiguation of English phrasal verbs formed with "up": 21 16 63 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 13 13 74 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 11 11 79

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dials up",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "dialing up",
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "dialling up",
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "dialed up",
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "dialed up",
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "dialled up",
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "dialled up",
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*l"
      },
      "expansion": "dial up (third-person singular simple present dials up, present participle (US) dialing up or (UK) dialling up, simple past and past participle (US) dialed up or (UK) dialled up)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              45,
              51
            ],
            [
              56,
              58
            ]
          ],
          "text": "The written instructions weren't clear, so I dialed her up and asked her to explain what she meant.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To telephone, to call on the telephone."
      ],
      "id": "en-dial_up-en-verb-8pvJTdTf",
      "links": [
        [
          "telephone",
          "telephone"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "give a ring"
        },
        {
          "word": "phone"
        },
        {
          "word": "ring"
        },
        {
          "word": "ring up"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              44,
              51
            ]
          ],
          "text": "In those days it took three minutes just to dial up, and every minute you were connected was costing you a higher phone bill.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To connect a computer to a modem."
      ],
      "id": "en-dial_up-en-verb-Rw6botot",
      "links": [
        [
          "connect",
          "connect"
        ],
        [
          "modem",
          "modem"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "antonyms": [
        {
          "word": "dial back"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "27 19 55",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "21 16 63",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English phrasal verbs formed with \"up\"",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "13 13 74",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "11 11 79",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Near-synonym: ratchet up"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              33,
              40
            ]
          ],
          "text": "These comments are guaranteed to dial up the animosity.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              47,
              57
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2025 May 3, Leila Abboud, “Lunch with the FT: Jean-Luc Mélenchon”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3:",
          "text": "Think Bernie Sanders versus Kamala Harris, but dialled up to France where revolution is part of the national psyche.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To increase the level (of something) by turning a dial, or (figuratively) as if by turning a dial."
      ],
      "id": "en-dial_up-en-verb-btYXVimG",
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "ratchet up"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "dial up"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English phrasal verbs",
    "English phrasal verbs formed with \"up\"",
    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dials up",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "dialing up",
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "dialling up",
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "dialed up",
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "dialed up",
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "dialled up",
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "dialled up",
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*l"
      },
      "expansion": "dial up (third-person singular simple present dials up, present participle (US) dialing up or (UK) dialling up, simple past and past participle (US) dialed up or (UK) dialled up)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              45,
              51
            ],
            [
              56,
              58
            ]
          ],
          "text": "The written instructions weren't clear, so I dialed her up and asked her to explain what she meant.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To telephone, to call on the telephone."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "telephone",
          "telephone"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "give a ring"
        },
        {
          "word": "phone"
        },
        {
          "word": "ring"
        },
        {
          "word": "ring up"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              44,
              51
            ]
          ],
          "text": "In those days it took three minutes just to dial up, and every minute you were connected was costing you a higher phone bill.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To connect a computer to a modem."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "connect",
          "connect"
        ],
        [
          "modem",
          "modem"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "antonyms": [
        {
          "word": "dial back"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Near-synonym: ratchet up"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              33,
              40
            ]
          ],
          "text": "These comments are guaranteed to dial up the animosity.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              47,
              57
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2025 May 3, Leila Abboud, “Lunch with the FT: Jean-Luc Mélenchon”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3:",
          "text": "Think Bernie Sanders versus Kamala Harris, but dialled up to France where revolution is part of the national psyche.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To increase the level (of something) by turning a dial, or (figuratively) as if by turning a dial."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "ratchet up"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "dial up"
}

Download raw JSONL data for dial up meaning in English (2.6kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-08-28 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-08-05 using wiktextract (872fc7b and 4deed51). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.