Show up and showdown

Up is the opposite of down but show up is not the opposite of showdown. They are two different things entirely.

First “show up”. Notice that this consists of two separate words. It is a phrasal verb meaning to appear or to arrive.

Some examples:

• He was late for the meeting; he didn’t show up until it was nearly finished.
• What time do you think they will show up at the party?
• She is always showing up when you least expect her.
• They like to show up at the last possible moment.

In a very similar meaning, we use to show up when we speak about someone making a valuable contribution to something.

For example:

• The team have been playing so badly that they really need to show up in the next few games if they hope to stay in this league.
• It’s no good just sitting there, you must show up and make a difference.

There is another meaning of show up – when we use it in the form of “to show (someone) up”. Here it means to embarrass someone.

For example:

• My sister is always showing me up at school.
• He really showed himself up when he sang that song.

A “showdown”, on the other hand, is one word. It is a noun which is defined in the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary as meaning: “an event, such as a meeting or fight, that ends a disagreement or decides who will win”. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/

Some examples:

• The big fight at the weekend will be a showdown to decide who will be the world champion.
• They have been arguing for so long that a showdown of some sort was inevitable.
• The dispute between management and the unions looks to be heading for a showdown with the workers going out on strike.
• We’ve been disagreeing on so many things recently that I suppose we’re heading for a proper showdown.

^{Posted by Graham}