Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - sew up

1. If you sew up pieces of cloth or tears in cloth or skin, you join them together using a needle and thread. Next day, Miss Stone decided to sew up the rip... PHRASAL VERB: V P n (not pron), also V n P 2. If someone sews up something such as a business deal, an election, or a game, they make sure that they will get the result they want. (INFORMAL) If they didn’t move fast, Johnson could sew this deal up within days... The Italians think they’ve got it all sewn up. PHRASAL VERB: V n P, V n P, also V P n (not pron)