VERB MEANING EXAMPLE

ASK OUT To invite on a date Martin invited Carol out to dinner on Sunday
BACK SOMEONE UP To support When I decided to set up my own business,
Sharon backed me up
BE ABOUT TO To be going to happen or When we arrived, the film was about to start
do something very soon
BE OVER To end; finish When the show was over, everybody started
clapping
BREAK DOWN To stop functioning (for My car broke down in the middle of the road
vehicles, machines, etc.)
BREAK DOWN To start crying (normally in Emily broke down when she heard about the
public) accident
BREAK IN To enter a place to steal Someone broke in last night and stole €6000
something from the safe
BREAK INTO SOMETHING To enter a building by Two houses in my street were broken into last
force, especially to steal night
things
BREAK OUT Something bad (such as a The fire must have broken out during the
war, a fight, a fire, riots, a night / the war broke out after Christmas
row, violence…..) starts
BREAK UP To end a relationship Pam and Tom broke up last month
BRING SOMEONE UP To raise a child Paul was brought up by his grandparents
BRING UP To feel sick and vomit He drank so much at the party that he brought
up when he arrived home
BUMP INTO To run into; meet someone I bumped into your sister at the post office
unexpectedly
CALL SOMEONE BACK To return a phone call I´ll call you back as soon as know what time the
concert is
CALL SOMETHING OFF To cancel The open air concert was called off because of
the heavy rain

CALL ON SOMEONE To visit someone, usually We can call on your cousin on our way back
for a short time home
CALM DOWN To begin to feel more Calm down and tell us what´s going on!
 relaxed after being angry
CATCH UP (WITH) To get to the same point as He had an operation and couldn´t go to school
someone else but he soon caught up with his classmates
CHECK IN To arrive and register at a
hotel or airport
CHECK OUT To leave a hotel after
paying the bill
CHEER UP To become happier
CHEER SOMEONE UP To make someone happier
CHOP UP To cut something such as
food or wood into pieces
COME ACROSS To meet someone or find
SOMETHING/SOMEBODY something by chance
COME BACK To return
COME IN /INTO To get in / into: get into a
place
COME FROM SOMEWHERE To have been born in or
originate in
COUNT ON SOMEONE To rely on
/SOMETHING
CROSS SOMETHING OUT To draw an X or a line
through writing
CUT DOWN ON To reduce an amount of
something; consume less
DO AWAY WITH To get rid of ( something)
DO SOMETHING UP To fasten, close (clothes)…
DO WITHOUT To succeed in living or
working without someone
or something
DRESS UP To wear nice clothing; put
on clothes for fun to make
you look someone else
DROP SOMEONE OR To take someone
SOMETHING OFF /something to a place in a
car and leave them there
You must check in at least an hour before your
flight/we checked in at the hotel at 6:00
Jane had to check out before 12:00
She cheered up when she heard the good news
I bought some chocolates to to try to cheer her
up but she was absent-minded
Finely chop up the cabbage and cook it in
boiling salted water
I came across some old photos when I was
cleaning the attic / I came across Peter in the
street
He came back from school earlier than usual
Come in! / She came into the room without
anybody noticing
Peter comes from Scotland / this word comes
from an African language
The whole team was counting on me and I let
them down
Just cross out his old address
My blood pressure is high. I’m trying to cut
down on salt
I have to do away with these old tools
Do up your shoelaces or you´ll fall down/ do up
your zip! / do up your coat!
There´s no milk, so you´ll have to do without / I
can´t do without a cup of coffee in the morning
It´s a fancy disco, so we have to dress up / for
his birthday party he dressed up as a
policeman
I have to drop Peter off at school at 9:00 / I´m
driving into town, shall I drop you somewhere?
EAT OUT To have a meal at a
restaurant instead of at
home
END UP DOING Eventually reach, decide …
SOMETHING to do something
FALL OUT WITH To stop being friendly with
SOMEBODY someone because of a
disagreement
FIGURE SOMETHING OUT To be able to understand
something or solve a
problem; find the answer
FILL SOMETHING IN To write information on an
official document
FILL SOMETHING UP To fill to the top
FIND (SOMETHING )OUT To discover a fact or piece
of information
GET SOMETHING ACROSS To make people
understand something
GET ALONG/ON To like each other
GET AWAY WITH (DOING) To manage to do
SOMETHING something bad without
being punished or
criticized for it
GET OVER SOMETHING To recover from an illness,
loss, difficulty….
GET TOGETHER To meet (usually for social
reasons)
GET UP To get out of bed ; stand
GIVE SOMETHING BACK To return a borrowed item
GIVE IN Reluctantly stop arguing or
competing
I don´t spend much on eating out, I prefer to eat
at home
I thought the weekend would be lovely and I
ended up spending the night at the airport / we
wanted to play tennis but we ended up playing
video games at home
I´ve fallen out with my parents / have you two
fallen out?
We have to figure out the connection between
the two events.
Please fill in your name and address in the
space provided/ I had to fill in a form to become
a member of the club
Fill it up with unleaded petrol, please!
She may never find out the truth about what
happened
Eventually, I got the message across / I was
trying to get across how much I admire them
I get along /on well with most of my colleagues
How can he get away with being so rude to his
teacher? / He broke the neighbour’s window
but he got away with it
He has just got over the flu but he´s still a bit
weak
The whole family usually gets together at
Christmas
I usually get up at 9:00 / I had to get up to leave
my seat to a pregnant woman
The company had to give back all the money
the customers had paid
The Government said they will never give in to
terrorist threats / he didn´t want to come with
me but in the end he gave in
GIVE UP To stop doing something He decided to give up smoking
that you do regularly
GIVE UP To stop trying The exercise was too difficult and I gave up
GO AHEAD To start or continue to do Go ahead or your food will get cold
something
GO BACK To return to a place He went back to Mexico after Paul´s wedding
GO ON To continue He went on complaining
GO OUT WITH SOMEONE To date someone Kate used to go out with Steve
GO OUT To leave home to go on a I haven´t gone out with my friends for over 2
social event months
GROWP UP To become an adult When he grows up, he wants to travel abroad
HAND IN To give something to a All essays must be handed in by Tuesday /
person in authority Please, hand in your keys when you check out!
HANG ON (INFORMAL) To wait for a short while Hang on! I have to lock the door
HANG UP To end a phone call Get lost! She shouted and hung up
HAVE SOMETHING TO DO Used for saying that He has nothing to do with me / Does his
WITH something is related to attitude have anything to do with my wedding?
something else
KEEP ON DOING To continue doing My mother kept on asking me questions about
SOMETHING something the trip
LET SOMEONE DOWN To fail to support or help; He let me down when I needed him most
disappoint
LOOK AFTER To take care of It´s hard work looking after three children all
day
LOOK DOWN ON To think that you are She looks down on anyone who hasn´t had a
SOMEONE better or more important university education
than someone else
LOOK FOR SOMEONE To search for someone or I´m looking for Sam. Have you seen him? / he´s
/SOMETHING something been looking for his glasses for hours
LOOK FORWARD TO To feel happy and excited My father is looking forward to his retirement /
SOMETHING/DOING about something that is He is looking forward to going to Italy
SOMETHING going to happen
LOOK INTO SOMETHING To try to discover the facts I wrote a letter of complaint and the airline has
about problems, crimes… promised to look into the matter / The police
are looking into the murder
LOOK OUT! Be careful! Look out! There´s a car coming!
LOOK SOMETHING UP To try to find information I didn´t know the meaning of the word and I
by looking in a book , on a looked it up in the dictionary / We can look up
 list or using a computer the address of the restaurant on the Internet

LOOK UP TO SOMEONE To admire and respect He looks up to his grandfather

someone
MAKE SOMETHING UP To invent; lie about She made up a believable story about why we
something were late
MAKE UP To forgive each other We were cross yesterday but we made up after
work
MAKE UP To apply cosmetics to My sister made me up for my wedding
MIX SOMETHING UP To confuse two or more I always mix up dates
things
PASS AWAY To die Her grandmother passed away last month
PASS OUT To faint It was so hot in the office that Susan passed out
PAY SOMETHING BACK To return owed money I borrowed $200 from him but I have already
paid him back
PICK UP To learn without intending He picked up a few German phrases while
to staying in Berlin
PUT SOMETHING OFF To postpone ; delay The open air concert had to be put off because
of the rain
PUT ON To cover the body with She put on her coat and went out / Don´t forget
clothing or jewellery to put on your watch
PUT SOMETHING OUT To extinguish The firemen put out the fire in an hour
PUT UP To let someone stay in Could you put me up for the night when I come
your house to town?
PUT UP WITH To accept someone or I will not put up with your bad behaviour any
SOMETHING /SOMEONE something unpleasant in a longer / I can´t put up with Peter
patient way
RUN INTO SOMEONE To meet unexpectedly I ran into Alice at the shopping centre
RUN OVER To hit someone or My cousin was run over by a car outside her
SOMEONE/SOMETHING something with a vehicle house
and drive over them
RUN AWAY To leave unexpectedly; The teenager ran away from home because he
escape didn’ t get on well with his stepfather
RUN OUT OF To have none/nothing left I ran out of sugar and I couldn´t make the cake
SET OFF To start a trip /journey They set off at midday
SET SOMETHING UP To start a business, etc. He set up a business but he went bankrupt / I´ll
/organize or plan set up a meeting for Thursday
SHOW OFF To boast of what you have He is always showing off in his BMW
 or what you can do
STICK TO SOMETHING To continue doing I think we should stick to our original plans
something
SWITCH SOMETHING OFF To turn off ; stop the When I left the room, I switched off the light
energy flow; stop paying /When he speaks about football, she switches
attention off and ignores him
SWITCH ON To turn on ; start the He never switches on the heating because it´s
energy flow very expensive
SLOW DOWN To reduce the speed You have to slow down when you get to the
roundabout
SPEED UP To move or happen faster You´ll have to speed up if you want to get home
on time
SPLIT UP( WITH) To end a relationship They split up after the summer
TAKE AFTER SOMEONE To resemble a family Lucy takes after her mother
member
TAKE CARE Be careful!; also used to Take care that you don´t fall on those steps! /
say goodbye in a friendly Bye now! Take care!
way
TAKE SOMETHING OFF To remove something, He took off his sweater because it was boiling
especially clothing hot in the pub
TAKE ON To employ someone We are not taking on any new staff at the
moment
TAKE UP To start doing something As I had a lot of free time, I decided to take up
as a hobby, interest, job… tennis
TELL OFF To criticize someone for The teacher told me off for being late again
doing something bad
TURN SOMETHING DOWN To decrease the volume or Will you please turn the music down a bit! /
strength; not accept an How can you turn down such a fantastic job?
offer or request
TURN OFF /ON = switch on / off
TURN SOMETHING UP To increase the volume or Please , turn up the volume. I can´t hear the
strength song!
TURN UP To arrive; come I waited for him but he didn´t turn up
somewhere
TRY SOMETHING ON To sample clothing He tried on three sweaters at the shop

USE UP To finish the supply They used up the shampoo and I had to wash
my hair with soap
WARM UP To prepare your body for I always warm up by doing sit-ups before I go
 exercise jogging
WATCH OUT Be careful! Watch out! You´re going to stumble and fall!