Phrasal Verbs 8: More Verbs + Up (2)

Talking and Ideas

These phrasal verbs all relate to conversations, ideas, and stories.

Verb	Meaning	Example
bring up	introduce a topic in a conversation	The manager brought up the budget issue during the meeting.
come up	appear or be mentioned in a conversation	The topic of remote work came up at the team lunch.
come up with	think of an idea or a solution	Our intern came up with a clever fix for the scheduling problem.
make up	invent something that is not true	He didn’t have a real excuse, so he made one up.

Notice that bring up needs an object (you bring up a topic), but come up does not (a topic comes up on its own).

• Please don’t bring that up again. We already discussed it last week.
• Several useful suggestions came up during the brainstorming session.
• We need a new slogan. Can anyone come up with something?
• That story about meeting the CEO? He made the whole thing up.

Mood, Weather, and Money

Verb	Meaning	Example
cheer up	become happier / make someone happier	You look stressed. Cheer up — the deadline got extended!
save up (for)	keep money over time so you can buy something later	She’s saving up for a professional certification course.
clear up	become bright and sunny (weather)	It was foggy this morning, but it cleared up by noon.

You can use cheer up with or without an object:

• The whole office was quiet after the bad news, but Tom’s joke cheered everyone up.
• Come on, cheer up! The project review went better than you think.

Destruction and Force

Verb	Meaning	Example
blow up	explode / destroy with a bomb	The old warehouse blew up because of a gas leak.
tear up	rip into small pieces	She tore up the rejected draft and started fresh.
beat up	hit someone repeatedly and cause serious injury	He was beaten up outside the stadium after the match.

Blow up can also be used without an object when something explodes on its own:

• The engine overheated and blew up.

And with an object when someone destroys something deliberately:

• The demolition crew blew up the old building on Saturday.

Relationships, Repairs, and References

Verb	Meaning	Example
break up / split up	end a relationship or partnership	The two co-founders split up after disagreeing on strategy.
do up	(1) fasten clothing; (2) renovate a room or building	It’s cold outside — do up your coat. / They did up the old office. It looks brand new.
look up	search for information in a reference source	If you don’t know the term, look it up in the glossary.

Do up has two different meanings depending on the object:

• Clothes, buttons, zips, laces: do up = fasten or tie
• Rooms, houses, buildings: do up = repair and improve

Tolerating, Delaying, and Confusing

Verb	Meaning	Example
put up with	tolerate something unpleasant	Our office is next to a construction site, so we have to put up with constant noise.
hold up	delay someone or something	A technical problem held up the product launch by two weeks.
mix up / get mixed up	confuse two things or people	The two reports have similar titles. It’s easy to mix them up.

Put up with always needs an object — you put up with something or someone:

• How do you put up with such a long commute every day?
• The Wi-Fi keeps dropping, but we just have to put up with it until IT fixes it.

Hold up is often used in the passive:

• The shipment was held up at customs for three days.

Mix up often appears with get:

• The two candidates have the same last name, so we kept getting them mixed up.

Quick Self-Check