Common Phrasal Verbs

push back (on sth)

• The company has tried to push back on the claim that it paid no taxes.
• The start of the game was pushed back from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

push for sth

• Local residents are pushing for the road to be made safer.
• The unions are pushing for job security even if it means settling for modest wage increases.
• Business leaders are pushing for a change in tax laws.

turn sth around

• The new management team turned the ailing company around in under six months.
• They were losing badly but they turned things around in the second half of the game.
• He was hired by the government to help turn around the failing high-street bank.

hand down

• This necklace was handed down to my mother by my grandmother.

fire off

• He fired off an angry letter to the editor.
• He can fire off an email with a question and usually get an answer within a few hours.

fuss over

• He spent hours fussing over the details of the speech.
• She's always fussing over that son of hers as if he were a little boy.

bounce off

• Since foil is metal, micromaves bounce off it, causing sparks or even small fires.
• I want to bounce some ideas off you before the meeting.

shake up

• Technological changes have shaken up many industries.
• The first thing the new chairman of company did was shake up the management.
• The company is undergoing a radical shake-up.

set aside something

• He sets aside some time every day to read to his children.
• She sets aside time for medication every day.
• He had some money in an account that he'd set aside for his kids.
• We set aside a few dollars a month to buy furniture.
• In times of war people tend to set aside political differences.
• Setting aside the quesiton of cost, what do you think of the idea in principle?

put/set right

• We've discovered what's gone wrong and are going to put it right.
• A good night's sleep will soon put you right.
• She thought she wouldn't have to work hard, but we soon put her right on that.

go under

• Thousands of companies went under during the recession.
• Nothing could be done to keep the bank from going under.
• The company will go under unless new financing can be put in place soon.

set back

• The bad weather set back the building programme by several weeks.
• The opening of the new swimming pool has been set back by a few weeks.
• This defeat has set back their chances of winning the competition.
• Our vocation set us back over $3,000.
• Then I needed a second operation, which really set me back.

hit on/upon

• When we first hit on the idea, everyone told us it would never work.
• Some guy hit on me while I was standing at the bar.

~ up

step up

• The team really stepped up their performance.

shore up

The tax cuts are supposed to shore up the economy.

fix up

• I'd like to fix up a meeting with you next week sometime.
• Can he fix us up with somewhere to stay?
• Jacques tried to fix me up with his older sister.

snap up

• He's telling his followers to snap up shares immediately.
• Tickets for the concert were snapped up within three hours of going on sale.

make up

• We will have to think of something else to do to make up for it.
• We don't you two kiss and make up?

catch up

• We can catch up our schoolwork.

mix up

• Take the cards and mix them up.
• People often mix me up with other actors.

face up to

• I have grown up now and I have to face up to my responsibilities.
• We had to face up to the harsh reality of life sooner or later.

call up

So the other day, I caled up one of the world's top experts in working from home, and he himself was fittingly working from home.

~ out

speak out

• He spoke out against the school's admissions policy.
• It takes courage to speak out against the tide of opinion.

voice out

She voiced out her opinion on bullying today.

fish out

• He fished out a coin from his pocket.
• He fished a tissue out of his pocket.

lay out

• I'd like to lay out my reasoning.
• For the stock to achieve the path analysts have laid out, Nvidia must exceed those estimates.

clear out

• Sometimes I need to clear out the cache myself.
• Go throught the mail and clear out your inbox.

lost out

• And it's just weird, and you're probably going to lose out on business.
• Small business are losing out to the large chains.
• Egypt has lost out on revenues from the Suez Canal.
• He got through the preliminaries, but lost out in the finals.

set out to do sth

• We set out to find the truth behind the mystery.
• What were you setting out to do with this paper? What was the plan?

buy out

• The bank had to pay to buy out most of the 200 former partners.
• He has enough money to buy out the company.

fizzle out

• They went to different universities and their relationship just fizzled out.
• Did your ebook fizzle out after a few pages?

pan out

• Nobody knew how the things would pan out.
• Your idea is too ideal. It won't pan out.

meddle in

• I don't want my parents meddling in my affairs by telling me how I should run my life.
• My sister's always meddling in other people's affairs.
• People shouldn't meddle with things they don't understand.

tap into

• Embraer has been looking to tap into the fast growing market.
• If only we could tap into all that energy and creativity.

ward off

• Such a thin padded coat cannot ward off the cold mountain wind.
• Some people think taking vitamin C can ward off colds.
• He used his umbrella to ward off the fierce sun.

touch on

• In his speech he was only able to touch on a few aspects of the problem.
• Of course, we only touched on how much I would be paid.

usher in

• Some have suggested the iPhone 16 will usher in a "super cycle" of consumers rushing to upgrade their devices.
• These changes could usher in a period of dramatic economic growth.
• His inventionss helped usher in the era of skyscrapers.
• The party was an elegant way to usher in the new year.

fall short (of/by)

• August car sales fell short of the industry's expectations.
• They needed 60 votes to pass the bill, but they fell short by 12 votes.

make sense of sth

• You can ask the teacher to speak slowly so that you can make sense of what he say.
• This is to help her make sense of past experiences.

make sense

• Does that make sense?
• This makes sense to me.
• You listen to English people speaking and half the time they come in with these random verbs that don't make sense.

call off

• Shoule we call off the meeting?
• Did you hear about the concert? It's been called off.
• He had called off the trip.

go through

• He was going through a very difficult time.
• I'm gonna go through all of them and explain every single one.
• Going through his list of customers is a massive job.
• The bill might have gone through if the economy was growing.

count on

• I guess you can't count on the weather in March?
• You can always count on Michale in a crisis.
• I can count on my parents to help me.
• She didn't count on rain, and didn't bring an umbrella.

let down

• What a let down!
• I won't let you down.

sit in on sth

Meaning: to attend a meeting, class, etc. in order to listen to or learn from it rather than to take an active part

Example:

• Kyle had recently sat in on some econ seminars, and he was telling Florian how aggressive the conversaton had gotten.
• She's been asked to sit in on the meetings.
• Will they permit you to sit in on a few classes?
• People can sit in on meetings, even if it's not really in their subject area.

spill over (into sth)

Meaning: to start in one area and then affect other area

Example:

• Unrest has spill over into areas outside the city.
• Debates over academic papers can spill over into outright attacks - sometimes even threats.
• I try not to let my work spill over into my life outside the office.
• The conflict threatens to spill over into neighbouring reglions.
• The talks between the two leaders look likely to spill over into the weekend.

poke around/about

Meaning: to look for sth, especially sth that is hidden among other things that you have to move

Example:

• We've had journalists poking around and asking a lot of questions.
• So engineer, not economist, Kyle Jensen has just poking around on the Econ Job Market Rumors site.
• I was poking around in the drawer, looking for the key, when I found this!
• She just started poking around and this was one of the first websites that came back.

rope in sb (to do sth / for sth)

Meaning: to persuade sb to join in an activity or to help to do sth, even when they do not want to

Example:

• Everyone was roped in to help with the show.
• Florian ropes in another friend - a mathy one - Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham of Yale.
• Visitors were roped in for potato picking and harvesting.
• At the last minute, we roped in a couple of spectators to complete the team.

hold with

Example: to agree with sth

• We don't hold with the French in Britain.
• I don't hold with the use of force.
• I don't hold with the way they do things nowadays.

take on sb

Meaning: If you take someone on, you fight them or compete against them, especially when they are bigger or more powerful than you are. Example:

• The rebels took on the entire Roman army.
• An Indigenous drink maker in Colombia decided to take on one of the biggest beverage makers in the world.
• I'll take you on in a game of chess.
• You have to be brave to take on a big corporation in court.