Essential English Phrasal Verbs: Definitions and Examples
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Essential English Phrasal Verbs
This table provides a list of common English phrasal verbs, their definitions, and example sentences to help you understand their usage.
| Phrasal Verb | Definition | Example Sentence |
|---|---|---|
| Blow up | Explode | The bomb blew up without any warning. |
| Bring up | Mention a topic | They didn't bring the subject up at the meeting. |
| Bring up | Raise children | My parents brought me up strictly. |
| Call off | Cancel | The meeting was called off. |
| 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 | You'll never find out what happened. |
| Give away | Donate, give as a gift | I'll give all my dolls away to your daughter. |
| Give back | Return an object | I gave the money back that she'd lent to me. |
| Hand in | Submit something (assignment) | I handed my homework in late as usual. |
| Hang up | Put something on hook or receiver | I lost my temper and hung up. |
| Hold up | Delay | I hate to hold up the meeting, but I have to go to the bathroom. |
| Hold up | Rob | Three masked gunmen held up the Security Bank this afternoon. |
| Leave out | Omit | He was left out of the side because he hasn't been playing too well lately. |
| Look over | Examine, check | They came to look the house over with a view to buying it. |
| Look up | Search in a list | You can look up the word in the dictionary. |
| Make up | Invent a story or lie | They made up an excuse for being late. |
| Make out | Hear, understand | He's strange; I can't make him out. |
| Pick out | Choose | She picked out the ones she wanted to take and left the rest. |
| Pick up | Lift something off something else | The crane picked up the entire house. |
| 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. |
| Put on | Put clothing on the body | I put on a sweater and a jacket. |
| Put out | Extinguish | The firefighters put out the house fire before it could spread. |
| 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. |
| 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 | 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 | 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. |