From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishown up phrasal verbADMITto admit that you have done something wrong, especially something that is not serious Come on, own up. Who broke it?own up to (doing) something No one owned up to breaking the window. He was too frightened to own up to his mistake. He still wouldn’t own up to the fact that he’d lied. → own→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
own up• Unless the guilty person owns up, the whole class will be punished.• No one owned up to breaking the window.• I made a few mistakes, but I owned up to them.own up to (doing) something• There are, however, those organizations who are rightfully fearful of owning up to the truth about their attitudes and actions.• We expect you to behave yourself in here and own up to all the charges.• Yesterday, Apple owned up to an apparent breakdown in communications.• Not if you own up to it, anyway.• Almost every environmental organization would have to own up to the occasional creative exaggeration of the facts. 