Phrasal Verbs

Common
Phrasal Verbs

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Separable Phrasal Verbs The object may come after the following phrasal verbs or it may separate the two parts: You have to do this paint job over. You have to do over this paint job. When the object of the following phrasal verbs is a pronoun, the two parts of the phrasal verb must be separated: You have to do it over.
Verb	Meaning	Example
blow up	explode	The terrorists tried to blow up the railroad station.
bring up	mention a topic	My mother brought up that little matter of my prison record again.
bring up	raise children	It isn't easy to bring up children nowadays.
call off	cancel	They called off this afternoon's meeting
do over	repeat a job	Do this homework over.
fill out	complete a form	Fill out this application form and mail it in.
fill up	fill to capacity	She filled up the grocery cart with free food.
find out	discover	My sister found out that her husband had been planning a surprise party for her.
give away	give something to someone else for free	The filling station was giving away free gas.
give back	return an object	My brother borrowed my car. I have a feeling he's not about to give it back.
hand in	submit something (assignment)	The students handed in their papers and left the room.
hang up	put something on hook or receiver	She hung up the phone before she hung up her clothes.
hold up	delay	I hate to hold up the meeting, but I have to go to the bathroom.
hold up (2)	rob	Three masked gunmen held up the Security Bank this afternoon.
leave out	omit	You left out the part about the police chase down Asylum Avenue.
look over	examine, check	The lawyers looked over the papers carefully before questioning the witness. (They looked them overcarefully.)
look up	search in a list	You've misspelled this word again. You'd better look it up.
make up	invent a story or lie	She knew she was in trouble, so she made up a story about going to the movies with her friends.
make out	hear, understand	He was so far away, we really couldn't make out what he was saying.
pick out	choose	There were three men in the line-up. She picked out the guy she thought had stolen her purse.
pick up	lift something off something else	The crane picked up the entire house. (Watch them pick it up.)
point out	call attention to	As we drove through Paris, Francoise pointed out the major historical sites.
put away	save or store	We put away money for our retirement. She put away the cereal boxes.
put off	postpone	We asked the boss to put off the meeting until tomorrow. (Please put it off for another day.)
put on	put clothing on the body	I put on a sweater and a jacket. (I put them on quickly.)
put out	extinguish	The firefighters put out the house fire before it could spread. (They put it out quickly.)
read over	peruse	I read over the homework, but couldn't make any sense of it.
set up	to arrange, begin	My wife set up the living room exactly the way she wanted it. She set it up.
take down	make a written note	These are your instructions. Write them down before you forget.
take off	remove clothing	It was so hot that I had to take off my shirt.
talk over	discuss	We have serious problems here. Let's talk them over like adults.
throw away	discard	That's a lot of money! Don't just throw it away.
try on	put clothing on to see if it fits	She tried on fifteen dresses before she found one she liked.
try out	test	I tried out four cars before I could find one that pleased me.
turn down	lower volume	Your radio is driving me crazy! Please turn it down.
turn down (2)	reject	He applied for a promotion twice this year, but he was turned down both times.
turn up	raise the volume	Grandpa couldn't hear, so he turned up his hearing aid.
turn off	switch off electricity	We turned off the lights before anyone could see us.
turn off (2)	repulse	It was a disgusting movie. It really turned me off.
turn on	switch on the electricity	Turn on the CD player so we can dance.
use up	exhaust, use completely	The gang members used up all the money and went out to rob some more banks.