To man up means to be strong, take contol and do the honourable or responsible thing.
Examples of use:
1. Man up and get yourself a job and provide for your family.
2. You need to man up and tell your boss you deserve a promotion and a pay rise.
3. He is afraid to tell her he has spent all their savings – he needs to man up!
| infinitive |
man up |
| present simple |
man up and mans up |
| -ing form |
manning up |
| past simple |
manned up |
| past participle |
manned up |
Image © Steve Winton
About Angela Boothroyd
what a coincidence.i just watch a movie named “no strings attached” starred natalie portman and i learned this phrase from that movie,i think after seeing it in here i will remember it for a long time.Ur lessons is so useful.but may i make a suggestion? can u add under ur every lesson that: this phrase or idiom is still used or not.Cuz i just wanna learn english-to-communicate,thanks very much
and could u post the synonym of each phrase u post? for example,when i learned the phrase”fork out” i found it very interesting,and then i learned the phrase”shell out” 3 days after that.I mean,learners may wanna learn systematically
when i came across “shell out” i scatched my hair “it is very similar with…omg…what phrase…i cant recall” and then i remember “fork out” difficultly =.+ thank u very much,ur site has so many things i have to learn
Hello Nam,
Watching movies (‘films’ in British English) in English is an excellent way to test your understanding of English, and to learn new vocabulary etc.
I usually only write about language that is useful and still used, but I will remember to write if a phrase is still in common use and if there are any obvious synonyms. Thank you for the suggestions
Angela.