To end up somewhere is to finally arrive in a situation you never planned. Not where you meant to be.
It takes a place, an adjective or a verb ending in -ing, so you end up in Leeds, end up exhausted, or end up doing all the work yourself. That last pattern is the commonest, and it nearly always carries a note of resignation. The phrase describes an outcome rather than a decision, which is why it suits stories about drift, accident and other people's plans.
1phraseend upTo reach a final situation or place, often unintentionally.
“We will end up paying twice if nobody checks.”
Practised in Phrasal Verbs, A Man Called Ove
First appears in chapter 3 of A Man Called Ove.
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