From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishadd up phrasal verb1 HMNCOUNT/CALCULATEto calculate the total of several numbers I can add up in my head quite easily.add something ↔ up Specialized software adds up the statistics.2 not add up a) if a set of facts does not add up, it does not provide a reasonable explanation for a situation He was troubled by a feeling that things just didn’t add up. b) if sums, numbers etc do not add up, there is a mistake in them These figures don’t add up.3 it all adds up informal used to say that lots of small amounts gradually make a large total There are five of us using the phone so it all adds up. → add→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
add up• Five percent may not sound like much but it's a lot of money when you add it all up.• I can see now that George was planning this all along - it all adds up.• When we added up the receipts we realized we had spent too much.not add up• There were a few things in his story that didn't add up.• Why had she left the note? It just didn't add up.• His promises do not add up.• Now at first glance these figures do not add up.• The Opposition can not add up.• They were suspicious about my past, my age and a picture of me that simply did not add up.• The right hon. Gentleman's priorities do not add up and he knows it.• The Racal twins: their share prices just do not add up Outlook.• Although these sonatas do not add up to music of enormous consequence, Schultz and Schenkman bestow royal treatment upon them.it all adds up• Still, it all adds up to an interesting polemic.• Twenty hours, $ 14m and 33 actors-it all adds up to.. 