WordNet
lead up
v. prepare the way for; "Hitler's attack on Poland led up to World War Two" [syn: initiate]
Usage examples of "lead up".
If a man cannot lead up to passion he can at all events lead down from it, and she had hoped, after her complaisance, for some interchange of gentle words.
Once Sir John had even tried the experiment of addressing an acquaintance who stood near his Grace, meaning to lead up to a meeting, but though the Duke did not move from the place where he stood, in a few moments he had, with ease and naturalness, gathered about him a circle which 'twould have been difficult indeed to enter.
It was the first gambit in a conversation that was to lead up to Jenny's caricatures.