- Phrasal Verbs (Sentence examples: set about – shoot up)
- Phrasal Verbs (Sentence examples: slow down – start up)
Phrasal Verb |
Meaning |
Example Sentence |
show around/round |
To guide someone around a place to view something. |
The general manager showed the businessmen around the assembly plant. |
show off |
To display with excessive pride and for admiration. |
She keeps herself in shape and never hesitates to show off her body shape. |
|
To display with excessive pride and for admiration. |
Little Tim showed off his new toys to his friends. |
|
To behave in a way that is designed to impress. |
People find him annoying as he always shows off to them. |
show out |
To accompany someone, who is leaving, to the door. |
After each job interview, there’s someone to show the applicant out. |
show up |
To arrive. |
He has just shown up when he should have done so two hours ago. |
To put in an appearance. |
He liked to make appointments but never showed up. |
|
To be visible. |
Without make-up, her wrinkles clearly showed up. |
|
To cause someone to feel ashamed. |
She vowed never to see him again for showing her up. |
|
To demonstrate a fault in someone or something. |
Their decisive defeat showed up the team’s weaknesses in defence and passing of the ball. |
|
shut away |
To hide away or to confine someone. |
He used to shut himself away in his own research laboratory. |
To keep something out of reach of other people. |
I remember she shut away those things in this locked drawer before she passed away. |
|
shut down |
To cease operation. |
They had to shut down the factory two years ago. |
To close down. |
They had to shut down one of the twin engines when it malfunctioned. |
|
shut in |
To confine. |
They shut the tranquilized tiger in a cage for removal to another part of the jungle. |
shut off |
To stop something from operating. |
Mum always remembered to shut off the stove when she finished cooking. |
To stop operating. |
The electric iron shuts off by itself when it gets too hot. |
|
To be alone. |
After his release from prison, he shut himself off from the rest of the world. |
|
shut out |
To not allow the entry of someone or something into a place. |
It’s time to shut the dogs out of the house for the night. |
To prevent something from entering a place. |
We have to do something to shut out the draught from coming in under the door. |
|
shut up |
To make someone to stop talking. |
She should shut up and listen what others have to say. |
To stop speaking. |
No one is listening to what I’m saying, so I had better shut up. |
|
To close shop when business finishes for the day. |
Why do they shut up so early; now we can’t get what we want. |
|
To close a business permanently. |
He had to shut up and retire early on medical grounds. |
|
To seclude someone from the outside world. |
This is the tower where the king’s suspected enemies were shut up for the rest of their lives. |
|
To seclude oneself from the outside world |
He virtually spent his whole life shut up in the laboratory doing what he had always been interested in. |
|
sit around |
To pass time sitting and not doing anything useful. |
On most weekends, we would sit around and talk about anything. |
sit back |
To have one’s back resting comfortably against the back of a chair. |
He sat back in his chair and started to read the paper. |
sit by |
To fail to give proper care or attention to someone or something; to refrain from taking action. |
They accused him of sitting by when there had been a serious deterioration in his wife’s mental condition. |
sit down |
To take a seat. |
He stood up and let a pregnant lady sit down. |
sit in |
To be present but not participating. |
Some of these people who sit in are foreign observers. |
sit in for |
To act temporarily as a substitute. |
Another newsreader is sitting in for her this evening. |
sit on |
To delay taking action to deal with something. |
They accused the departmental head of sitting on their applications. |
sit out |
To not take part in doing something. |
I sat out the television programme just to be with her. |
To wait until a bad situation ends. |
We sat out the storm in a harbor before sailing again. |
|
sit through |
To stay until the end of something that is unpleasant. |
Our boss delivered a lengthy boring speech and we had to sit through it. |
sit up |
To stop oneself from going to bed early. |
We would sit up and watch when there’s a late football match on television. |
To sit with the backbone straight. |
His back is giving him great pain, so he can’t sit up straight. |
|
To get up from lying to sitting position. |
She is making good progress towards recovery as she can now sit up in the bed. |
|
To pay sudden attention to something. |
Everyone sat up when he broke the latest news of a big bomb explosion in the city centre. |
|
slip into |
To put on clothes quickly. |
He slipped into his pyjama/pajama trousers and without shirt got into bed. |
To put on clothes quickly. |
Please wait while I slip into something more comfortable. |
|
slip off |
To take one’s clothes off quickly. |
Let’s slip off our clothes and get into the bath together. |
To move away quietly and carefully in order not to be seen or heard. |
He was to give a speech later, but he slipped off when no one was looking. |
|
slip on |
To put (clothes) on quickly. |
She slipped on a pair of gloves to do some gardening. |
slip out |
To say something not consciously or intentionally. |
I know I shouldn’t have said it, but the words just slipped out. |
slip out of |
To take clothes off quickly. |
He slipped out of his robe and got into the swimming pool. |
slip up |
To make a careless mistake. |
The police slipped up and the wrong person was arrested. |