Phrasal Verb | Definition |
Ask after | Ask news about something |
Back down | Withdraw from a project or proposition; no longer give support to something |
Back out | Decide not to complete something you agreed to; fail to keep a promise |
Bank on | Depend on something happening or on someone doing something |
Bend down | Move to the top part of your body forwards and downwards |
Break down | Stop working; cause to collapse, destroy
Have a physical or mental collapse |
Break out | Start suddenly or abruptly
Emerge, escape |
Bring forward | Change the date or time of an event to an earlier moment |
Bring in | Introduce a new law or system |
Bring on | Be the cause of something bad, especially an illness |
Bring out | Produce a new product and start to sell it |
Bring up | Look after a child until he or she becomes an adult
Start discussing a subject |
Call off | Cancel an event that had been planned or had already started |
Carry on | Continue doing an activity that was already in progress |
Catch on | Become popular or fashionable
Understand, usually after initial difficulty |
Chase after | Follow someone or something quickly in order to catch them |
Close down | Stop doing business or operating permanently |
Come (a)round | Happen or take place again |
Come (a)round to | Change your opinion or a decision |
Come across | Find something or meet someone by chance |
Come by | Get something, especially something that is hard to get |
Come down with | Become ill with a particular disease, usually not a serious one |
Come forward | Offer help or information |
Come into | Become in possession of, usually through an inheritance |
Come off | Happen or turn out to be successful |
Come on | Make progress or develop
Start to be broadcast |
Come round | Pay a visit, mostly used when going to someone’s house |
Come round (to) | Regain consciousness |
Come up with | Think of something such as an idea or a plan |
Cross out | Draw an X or line through writing indicating that it is wrong, something has been cancelled or a task has been completed |
Cut down on | Start doing less of something, usually because it isn’t good for your health |
Cut off | Stop the supply of something – as a result something may stop working (for example, due to lack of electrical power)
Make a place difficult or impossible to enter, leave or communicate with (for example, due to roadwork) |
Dawn on | Realize about something for the first time |
Die down | Become much less noisy, powerful or active; wither away; lose strength |
Do away with | Get rid of something |
Do up | Repair, paint and improve an old building, car, boat, … |
Drop off | Start to sleep
Take someone to a place in a car, usually without getting out of the car yourself |
Drop out | Leave something such as an activity, school or competition before you have finished what you intended to do |
Drown out | Prevent a sound from being heard by making a louder noise |
Fall for | Believe that a trick or a joke is true |
Fall out | Stop being friendly with someone because you have had a disagreement with them |
Fill in | Add information such as your name or address in the empty spaces on an official document |
Flick through | Leave through; turn the pages of a magazine, newspaper, leaflet of book very quickly and looking at them only briefly
Quickly look through the tv channels so as to see what’s on |
Get away | Go somewhere different from where you live so as to rest or spend a short holiday
Take a break from routine |
Get back | Return to a place |
Get by | Have just enough of something (such as money or knowledge) so that you can do what you need to do |
Get down | Make someone feel sad or lose hope |
Get on for | Be almost a particular time, number, age, etc. |
Get on | Like each other and are friendly to each other
Getting fairly old (said of people) |
Get through | Use or finish something |
Give away | Show an emotion or quality that you are trying to hide |
Give off | Emit, send forth
Produce something such as heat or a smell |
Give out | Distribute; give something to several people
Become used up or exhausted; run out
Stop functioning; fail |
Give up | Surrender; devote (oneself) completely
Stop doing something that was done regularly
Lose hope for or lose hope of seeing |
Go down | Be remembered by posterity for having done something
Set, drop below the horizon
Fall to the ground
Sink
Decrease in cost or value |
Go into | Deal with something in detail
Undertake as a profession or course of study |
Go off | Stop being fresh (as of food)
Explode; make a noise or sound
Adhere to the expected course of events or the expected plan
Stop liking someone or something |
Go on | Continue happening or doing something as before
Do something after doing something else |
Go over | Repeat a series of things or think about them again in order to understand them completely |
Grow on | Become progressively more acceptable or pleasant to |
Hand down | Bequeath or give to your heirs
Make and pronounce an official decision (especially a court verdict) |
Hand in | Give something to a person in authority |
Hand out | Distribute freely; administer or deal out |
Keep on | Continue doing something |
Leave out | Not include someone or something |
Let down | Disappoint, fail to meet the expectations of
Withdraw support from, forsake
Cause to come down gradually, lower |
Let off | Give someone little or no punishment for something they did wrong
Make something such as a bomb explode |
Let off on | (Informal) Cause to diminish, as in pressure; ease up on |
Look after | Take care of someone or something and make certain that they have everything they need |
Look down on | Think that you are better or more important than someone else |
Look into | Try to discover the facts about somethingsuh as a problem or crime |
Look out | Used for warning someone to be careful, especially because they are in a dangerous situation and likely to have an accident |
Look up to | Admire and respect someone |
Look up | Try to find a particular piece of information by looking in a book or on a list, or by using a computer |
Make for | Move towards a place |
Make off | Escape with something, especially something stolen |
Make out | Pretend that something is true
See, hear, or understand someone or something with difficulty
Write all the necessary information on a document such as a cheque |
Make up for | Provide something good, so that something bad seems less important |
Make up | Become friendly with someone again after an argument
Invent a story, poem, etc. |
Name after | Give someone or something the same name as someone or something else |
Narrow down | Reduce the number or possibilities or choices |
Pass away | Die |
Pass out | Suddenly become unconscious (because of heat, for example) |
Pick on | Keep treating someone badly badly or unfairly, especially by criticising them |
Pick up | Go and meet someone or something that you have arranged to take somewhere in a vehicle |
Pop in | Go somewhere quickly or for a short time |
Pull in | Arrive at a destination and stop there
Arrest (a criminal suspect) |
Pull out | Stop being involved in an activity, event or situation |
Pull through | Manage to stay alive after you have been very ill or very badly injured |
Put by | Save an amount of money so that you can buy or pay for something in the future |
Put down | Criticize someone, especially when other people are present, ina way that makes them feel stupid
Kill an animal using a drug because it is very ill or very dangerous |
Put down to | Explain something as being caused by something else |
Put forward | Suggest something or offer an idea, opinion, reason, etc. especially so that someone can discuss it and make a decision |
Put off | Delay doing something
Make someone not want to do something, or make someone nto like someone or something |
Put on | Add (for example weight so that you become fatter)
Clothe oneself with
Produce, perform |
Put out | Extinguish; expel
Publish |
Put through | Connect someone to the person they want to speak to on the telephone |
Put to | Match something (a name, a date, etc) with something else
Say something to someone in a particular way |
Run out of | Use all of something and not have any left |
Run over | Hit someone or something with a vehicle and drive over them |
Sail through | Do something or deal with something very easily |
See off | Go somewhere such as a station or airport with someone in order to say goodbye to them |
See through | Understand the true character or nature of someone
Provide support or cooperation to someone throughout a period of time
Work on a project until completion |
See to | Attend to or deal with someone or something |
Set off | Start a journey or start going in a particular direction |
Set out | Explain, describe or arrange something in a clear and detailed way, especially in writing
Start a journey
Start doing or working on something in order to achieve an aim |
Set to | Start doing something in a determined or enthusiastic way |
Set up | Start something such as a business, organisation or institution |
Settle down | Become calm after being upset, nervous or excited or to make someone do this
Begin to live a quieter life by getting married or staying permanently in a place |
Show off | Behave in a way that is intended to attract people's attention and make them admire you |
Stand in for | Do someone else's job temporarily while they are not available to do it |
Stand out | Be easy to see or notice because of being different |
Take aback | Be shocked or surprised, especially by something someone says or does to you |
Take after | Resemble an older relative in appearance, temperament or character; look or behave like
Follow as an example |
Take down | Write down information or a statement |
Take in | Trick someone into believing something that is not true |
Take off | Leaving the ground to start crying (said of an aircraft)
Remove something, especially a piece of clothing |
Take on | Accept some work or responsibility
Start to employ someone |
Take to | Begin to like someone or something
Start doing something as a habit |
Take up | Fill a particular amount of space or time
Start doing something regularly as a habit, job or interest |
Tear down | Destroy or remove a structure or part of a structure |
Think through | Consider the facts about something in an organised and thorough way |
Throw away | Get rid of something that you no longer want |
Try on | Put on a piece of clothing in order to see how it looks and whether it fits |
Turn down | Refuse to accept an offer or request |
Turn in | Hand in, give over; inform on or deliver
Produce
(Informal)Go to bed at night |
Turn into | Change or develop into something different |
Turn off | Stop using a piece of equipment by pressing a button or moving a switch |
Turn out | Develop in a particular way or have a particular result |
Turn over | Turn a page in a book or a sheet of paper so that the other side is towards you |
Turn round | Return the same way that you came instead of continuing on your journey |
Turn up | Come somewhere unexpectedly or without making a firm arrangement |
Wear off | Diminish gradually in effect |
Wear out | Make or become unusable through long or heavy use
Use up or consume gradually; exhaust, tire |