Name:
1. He waved aside her protests.
Meaning: to ignore someone’s opinion or ideas because you do not think they are important.
2. Would you mind standing in for me for a while?
Meaning: to temporarily do someone else’s job or take their place.
3. He had slipped in a few jokes to liven the speech up.
Meaning: to use a word or say something without attracting too much attention
4. If an engine or part of a machine seizes up, its moving parts stop working and can no longer
move, for example because of lack of oil.
5. Let me see if I can scare up something for you to eat.
Meaning: to make something although you have very few things to make it from.
6. We were a little put out at not being invited to the wedding.
Meaning: to feel upset or offended.
7. His injuries are severe but he’s expected to pull through.
Meaning: to stay alive after you have been very ill or badly injured, or to help someone do this.
8. Companies can plough back their profits into new equipment.
Meaning: to use money that you have earned from a business to make the business bigger and
more successful
9. They bought up pieces of old furniture and passed them off as valuable antiques.
Meaning: to make people think that someone or something is another thing.
10. To look in means to make a short visit to someone, while you are going somewhere else,
especially if they are ill or need help.
11. The bishop hit out at the government’s policy on the homeless.
Meaning: to express strong disapproval of someone or something; SYN attack
12. To hand down a decision/ruling/sentence etc. means to officially announce a decision,
punishment etc.
13. I meant to phone her yesterday, but I never got around to it.
Meaning: to do something that you have been intending to do for some time
14. By getting the design right, you can cut down on accidents.
Meaning: to reduce the amount of something.
15. I was flattered to be offered the job but wasn’t sure if I could carry it off.
Meaning: to do something difficult successfully.
16. Hurst was called up for the game against Mexico.
Meaning: to choose someone for a national sports
team.
17. If something unpleasant such as a fire, fight, or war breaks out it starts to happen.
Example: I was still living in London when the war broke out.
18. How is he bearing up since the accident?
Meaning: to show courage or determination during a difficult or unpleasant time
19. The discovery of oil ushered in an era of employment and prosperity.
Meaning: to cause something new to start, or to be at the start of something
new.
20. Winter seems to be setting in early this year.
Further economic decline set in during the 1930s.
Meaning: if something does so, especially something unpleasant, it begins and seems
likely to continue for a long time.
What do the following phrasal verbs mean in the context of the
sentences?
21. People thought that the use of robots would do away with boring low-paid factory jobs.
to get rid of something or stop using it
22. The organization is using the event to drum up business.
to get support, interest, attention etc from people by making an effort
23. Rioting has flared up in several towns.
[intransitive] if strong feelings flare or flare up, people suddenly become angry, violent etc
24.The next morning, Steve hit me with the truth. . (Informal)
to tell someone something interesting, exciting, or shocking
25. Pensions are keyed to the rate of inflation.
if the level, price, or value of something is keyed to something else, it is related to it and they rise
and fall at the same time
26. The bells pealed out on Christmas Day.
(technical) a musical pattern made by ringing a number of bells one after the other
27. Julia ploughed on with the endless exam papers.
to continue doing something that is difficult or boring
28. We’re trying to put a little by each month.
to save money regularly in order to use it later
29. The principal was certainly a woman to be reckoned with.
somebody/something to be reckoned with someone or something that is powerful and must be
regarded seriously as a possible opponent, competitor, danger etc
30. His only reason for investing in the company was to take it over.
to take control of something
Define the following phrasal verbs and make a relevant example for each.
Ascribe something to somebody or something
phrasal verb written
1 to claim that something is caused by a particular person, situation etc:
The report ascribes the rise in childhood asthma to the increase in pollution.
Bearing on/ upon sth
phrasal verb formal
to relate to and possibly influence something:
the national policies which bear on these problems
Buy something in
to buy something in large quantities:
Companies are buying in supplies of paper, in case the price goes up.
Come out in something
come out in spots/a rash etc if you come out in spots etc, spots appear on your body:
If I eat eggs, I come out in a rash.
Dawn on somebody
if a fact dawns on you, you realize it for the first time:
The ghastly truth dawned on me.
It dawned on me that Jo had been right all along.
Drift off
to gradually fall asleep:
I was just drifting off when the phone rang.
He felt himself drifting off to sleep.
Fire away
[only in imperative] spoken used to tell someone that you are ready to answer questions:
‘Do you mind if I ask you something, Woody?’ ‘Fire away.’
Hang together
1 if a plan, story, set of ideas etc hangs together, it is well organized and its different parts go well
together:
Her story just doesn’t hang together.
2 if people hang together, they help each other
Lay up
1 be laid up (with something) to have to stay in bed because you are ill or injured:
I was laid up for a week with flu.
2 to stop using a boat or vehicle, especially while it is being repaired
lay something ↔️up
Most of the yachts were laid up for the winter.
Keep somebody on
to continue to employ someone, especially for longer than you had planned:
If you’re good, they might keep you on after Christmas.
Look to somebody or something
to depend on someone to provide help, advice etc
look to somebody/something for
We look to you for support.
look to somebody to do something
They’re looking to the new manager to make the company profitable.
Pan out
to happen or develop in a particular way:
We’ll have to see how things pan out.
Pick over something
to examine a group of things very carefully in order to choose the ones you want:
She was sitting at the kitchen table picking over a pile of mushrooms.
Press on
(also press ahead) phrasal verb to continue doing something, especially working, in a determined
way:
We’ll talk about your suggestion later – now let’s just press on.
press on with
Shall we press ahead with the minutes of the last meeting?
Reel something off
1 to repeat a lot of information quickly and easily:
Jack reeled off a list of names.
2 informal to do something again and again:
The Yankees reeled off 14 straight wins.
Set in
if something sets in, especially something unpleasant, it begins and seems likely to continue for a
long time:
Winter seems to be setting in early this year.
Further economic decline set in during the 1930s.
Sit by
to allow something wrong or illegal to happen without doing anything about it:
I’m not going to sit by and watch a man go to prison for something I’ve done.
Stand somebody up (informal)
to not meet someone who you have arranged to meet:
I was supposed to go to a concert with Kyle on Friday, but he stood me up.
Be taken aback
to be very surprised about something:
Emma was somewhat taken aback by his directness.
Tuck somebody up
to make someone comfortable in bed by arranging the sheets around them:
Dad tucked me up in his and Carrie’s bed.
