起来 (qǐlái) comes up very frequently in Chinese and can be used both literally and figuratively. This is a little like the usage of "up" in English which can be used literally, as in "stand up", or figuratively, as in "add up".
Expressing an upward movement:
起来 can be used to express an upward movement like "up", as in the English examples of "stand up" or "pick up."
请大家 站 起来 。
Expressing bringing things together
起来 can be used to express collecting things together, wher in English we might say "tidy up", or "add up".
他 把 衣服 都收 起来 了。
Expressing an initial judgement
起来 can also be used to express a preliminary judgement. 起来 is used here to express that the speaker has only just initiated an action, and based on that, has made a quick judgement. It is used in the following structure:
subject+verb+起来+Adjective
This expresses that the subject seems adjective when the action of the verb is performed. This structure is frequently used with perception verbs such as 看, 听, 尝 etc.
Some examples:
他 看 起来 很 友好。
