drawing up

verb

present participle of draw up
1
as in stopping
to bring (something) to a standstill he drew up his horse outside the tavern

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in classifying
to put into a particular arrangement drew up the troops into a line along the ridge

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in preparing
to put (something) into proper and usually carefully worked out written form draw up a proposal and submit it to the committee for approval

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of drawing up States are drawing up their own legislation to rein in the tech. — Sigal Samuel, Vox, 27 Oct. 2026 Nobody is buying season tickets because Sean Sweeney is drawing up a new out-of-bounds play. — Mike Bianchi, The Orlando Sentinel, 22 Oct. 2026 Without that rule, threatened species no longer get automatic protections and instead rely on agencies drawing up species-specific rules for each one, a process that can take years. — Timothy Randhir, The Conversation, 1 Oct. 2026 This impetus did not begin with the war on terror; generations of American leaders and scholars have sought to increase presidential power, drawing up mechanisms that could sideline civil liberties and intertwine military and police activities. — Daniel Benjamin, Foreign Affairs, 11 Sep. 2026 According to a 2024 planning board presentation, TeraWulf’s project manager said the full buildout would bring employment to between 35 and 40 people at a facility drawing up to 500 megawatts. — Petala Ironcloud, ArsTechnica, 7 Sep. 2026 Congress also has the right to impeach the president, with the House drawing up articles of impeachment and the Senate holding the trial on those articles. — Tracy Grant, Encyclopedia Britannica, 26 Aug. 2026 Forward-looking brands and retailers are drawing up blueprints for the next demographic frontier — the tiniest tots born between 2025 and 2039. — Faye Brookman, Footwear News, 21 Aug. 2026 After more than 20 years of working for major tech companies as a user-experience designer (UX) – from LinkedIn to Amazon to Google – Tim Sparks is now drawing up a new playbook. — Max Darrow, CBS News, 20 Aug. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for drawing up
  1. stopping
  2. classifying
  3. preparing
  4. halting
  5. arranging
  6. composing
  7. stalling
  8. organizing
Verb
  • But Pollard was ruled down just outside the end zone in the second quarter, and Cleveland turned the Titans over on downs with Maliek Collins stopping Pollard on fourth-and-goal.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 25 Oct. 2026
  • But there's nothing stopping users from posting images or videos made with third party filters to the platform — or onto TikTok and Instagram, for that matter.
    — Chloe Veltman, NPR, 25 Oct. 2026
Definition of stopping
Verb
  • Operators fed Maven intelligence classifying the elementary school as an Iranian military facility, and the system, in turn, marked it as one of the priority targets for day one of the war.
    — Kylie Jones, Vox, 25 Oct. 2026
  • The distinction matters because responding to a signal and accurately classifying an unfamiliar chemical mixture are separate tasks.
    — Atharva Gosavi, Interesting Engineering, 24 Oct. 2026
Definition of classifying
Verb
  • States preparing for an imminent war prioritize military mobilization and strategic hardening; Fujian, by contrast, is being developed as a long-term engine of economic integration, innovation, and cross-Strait connectivity.
    — Ningrong Liu, Fortune, 23 Oct. 2026
  • In an interview with Vogue at Cannes, Hoyeon described spending six months preparing for the action sequences, including firearms training, obtaining a stick-shift driving license, and learning stunt-driving techniques.
    — Lisa Wong Macabasco, Vogue, 23 Oct. 2026
Definition of preparing
Verb
  • After fumbling twice in Michigan State territory, halting offensive momentum, the Bruins were trailing going into the second quarter and tied 7-7 with three minutes left in the second quarter.
    — Connor Dullinger, Los Angeles Times, 26 Oct. 2026
  • Democrats used the tools available to force votes that GOP leadership tried to avoid — on releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files and halting the Iran war.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 22 Oct. 2026
Definition of halting
Verb
  • One of our all-time favorite experiences was arranging a private, behind-the-scenes tour of Blenheim Palace, led by none other than the Duke of Marlborough himself.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 22 Oct. 2026
  • Miranda Orozco, 50, was sentenced to 30 years in prison after admitting to arranging travel and accommodations for two people who died and another who was seriously injured.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 21 Oct. 2026
Definition of arranging
Verb
  • Gash love composing songs whose intersecting lines set the entire mood of the song—jarring, dreamy, or nostalgic—in the style of art-house sampling.
    — Nina Corcoran, Pitchfork, 13 Oct. 2026
  • Lyall pulled out his phone and began composing a message for Claude, the AI app from Anthropic.
    — Jacob Feldman, Sportico.com, 13 Oct. 2026
Definition of composing
Verb
  • Rain chances continue into Thursday as the front shifts south before stalling over central Missouri, the weather service said.
    — Kansas City Star, Kansas City Star, 28 Oct. 2026
  • It’s led to stalling growth for some picture-heavy accounts, including Trust Fund Terry, which launched about eight years ago on Instagram.
    — Andrew Zucker, HollywoodReporter, 24 Oct. 2026
Definition of stalling
Verb
  • Her labor-organizing career took root in California’s agriculturally rich Central Valley, and her foundation is headquartered in Bakersfield.
    — Michael McGough, Sacbee.com, 28 Oct. 2026
  • The researchers realized that condensates concentrate molecules, pre-organizing them into a flexible microenvironment without locking them in place like a solid.
    — Yasemin Saplakoglu, Quanta Magazine, 28 Oct. 2026
Definition of organizing

Browse Nearby Words

drawings
drawing up
drawl
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Drawing up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/drawing%20up. Accessed 30 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of reticent

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Pwn, Skibidi, Girlboss and Other Words Added to the 2026 Scrabble Dictionary

The Words of the Week - Oct. 30

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
different halloween monsters in silhouette
A Monstrous Vocab Quiz Words That Go Bump in the Night
See All