Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - sum up

1. If you sum something up, you describe it as briefly as possible. One voter in Brasilia summed up the mood–‘Politicians have lost credibility,’ he complained... Obree summed his weekend up in one word: ‘Disastrous.’ PHRASAL VERB: V P n (not pron), V n P 2. 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... Sadly, the feud sums up the relationship between Lord Bath and the man who succeeds him. = epitomize PHRASAL VERB: V n P, V P n (not pron) 3. 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 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... PHRASAL VERB: V P 4. see also summing-up