Phrasal verbs |
| chance upon |
find or see someone or something when you did not expect to |
We chanced upon a charming little restaurant. |
| come across |
meet someone or find something by chance |
I came across a reference to my grandfather in an old book. |
| cool down |
become cooler, or make something cooler |
It's cooled down a lot in the fast couple of days. |
| cut back (on) |
reduce the amount of something, especially money that you spend |
I'm trying to cut back on groceries. |
| die out |
become weaker or less common and then disappear completely |
There used to be wolves here but they've
died out. |
| dig up |
remove something from under the ground by digging |
Archaeologists have dug up a bag of coins from Roman times. |
| dig up |
dig holes in an area of land |
Police have dug the garden up
looking for evidence. |
| dig up |
find information by searching carefully |
See what you can
dig up on the Internet on Mr Anderson. |
| dry up |
if something dries up or is dried up, all the water comes out of it |
The river has completely dried up. |
| dry up |
stop being available |
I'm a TV repairman, but work seems to have dried up lately. |
| get through |
use or finish something |
We get through a litre of
milk a day. |
| get through |
manage to deal with a difficult situation or stay alive until it is over |
How we got through it I'll never know. |
| get through |
finish dealing with some work, a subject, etc |
I've got a lot of work to get through. |
| heat up |
make something hot; become hot |
Heat up the baby's milk, would you? |
| kill off |
destroy living things so that most or all of them are dead |
The pollution killed off all the fish in the lake. |
| put down to |
if you put something down to a particular reason, you think it has happened for that reason |
What do you put your success down to? |
| slip up |
make a careless mistake slip-up (n) |
We can't afford to slip up this time. |
| spring up |
appear or be produced suddenly and quickly |
A lot of cafes have sprung up around here lately. |
| store up |
keep a lot of something so that you can use it later |
Squirrels store up nuts for the winter. |
| store up |
do something that will cause problems in the future |
If you ignore it, you're just storing up problems for the future. |
| throw out |
get rid of something that you no longer want, for example by putting it in a dustbin |
Are you throwing these things out? |
| throw out |
force someone to leave a place or group |
Charlie was thrown out of the Scouts. |
| throw out |
if someone in authority throws out a plan, proposal, etc they refuse to accept it |
The Minister threw out the proposed changes. |
| throw up |
produce something new or unexpected |
The new rules have thrown up a few problems. |
| throw up |
cause something such as dust or water to rise into the air |
As the helicopter landed, it threw up a lot of dust. |
