A time lapse of a storm building up
To build something/someone up / build up something/someone means
A) to gradually increase something or make it stronger, to increase to become stronger
Example sentence:
- A storm is building up in the North Sea
B) to encourage someone
Example sentence:
- The military tears down its recruits first to build them up next. The idea is to construct a new identity for them.
C) to advertise something/someone
- A huge ad campaign was launched to build up the show but it wasn't really that good after all.
D) to develop an area as in build buildings in it
- The area was built over the course of a decade.