Study Resource: 150+ common phrasal verbs in English and their meanings

I added up the numbers.

All the evidence added up to one conclusion: Nellie had betrayed me!

She brought up a few problems with that idea.

Marcus brought the book back to the library.

A meteor brought about the end of the dinosaurs.

Let’s break down the steps in this process…

My car broke down on the way to work.

The Beatles broke up in 1970.

She was crying for a while, but eventually she calmed down and told me what was wrong.

Napoleon carried out an attack on Egypt in 1798.

We told her to be quiet, but she carried on talking during the lecture.

Does your vacation time carry over into the new year?

I caught up with my sister on our weekly phone call.

Wait! Slow down so I can catch up to you!

My mom is always trying to catch me out in a lie, but I almost always tell her the truth! It’s not fair!

I finally caught on that they were talking about Jim and not his brother.

Leg warmers really caught on in the 1980s.

We checked in(to the hotel) at 4 in the afternoon.

We checked out (of the hotel) at 10 in the morning.

The police checked into their records, but there were no missing people who fit her description.

Pedro checked in on his sister after her surgery.

I cleaned up my house to receive guests.

We cleaned out my mom’s garage so that we could sell the house.

I thought that we would talk about our plans for next weekend, but it didn’t come up.

Who came up with the idea for this t-shirt? It’s so funny!

Come on! We’re going to be late!

John came round for a visit last week

Patrick was angry that I bought a blender, but he came around after he realized how much he liked my smoothies.

I was very confused when I came round after surgery.

A little girl came up to me in the store and said she was lost.

I can always count on her to say the wrong thing!

I can really count on her.

The kids really dug in(to their dinner)!

The police dug into his past a little, and found out that he had been arrested before.

My daughter’s toy fell apart even though she only used it once!

Tony was so dizzy that he fell down / over.

I fell out with my best friend over where we should go on vacation.

After talking to him for a while, I figured out that he worked for Google.

Margaret found out that her great grandfather was from Portugal.

My mom really freaked out when I told her I was failing history class.

At first, he was hurt by what I said, but he got over it.

She got him back for the prank he played.

She got back at him for the prank he played.

I’ll get back to you on Monday with my answer.

Thankfully, my wife and my mother get on / along (with each other) very well.

He got on the train at 44th street and he got off at 32nd street.

It is illegal to keep a wild bird as a pet, but Sarah got around the rule by adopting a starling, which is not protected.

It was a miserable afternoon, but we got through it.

Nancy usually gets up at 7 a.m.

My grandmother needs help to get up from her chair.

How did you get out of doing that assignment? It took me forever!

Marco always gets away with breaking the rules because the teacher likes him.

I tried really hard to climb the rope, but eventually I had to give up and let go.

The teacher gave / handed out the worksheets.

Give me back my controller! I want to play!

My mother refused to buy the toy at first, but eventually she gave in and bought it.

I tried to find my dad, but he’d gone out.

They’ve been going out for a year.

What’s going on?

I went on talking for an hour.

Let’s go over what we did and maybe we can figure out where we made a mistake…

Patrick went off to Columbus for the weekend.

Go away Chuck! You’re being annoying!

The captain of the Titanic went down with the ship.

She went down as one of the most intelligent women in history.

Something went down today that will really surprise you!

My mom grew up in the USSR.

The hiring problems held up the project.

Someone offered to buy my house, but I decided to hold out for a better price.

They held down the fort until more soldiers arrived.

The horse was bucking, but luckily he managed to hold / hang on!

I held / hung onto my grandmother’s rocking chair after the funeral.

She had on a red baseball cap.

Are you having me on or did you really meet Harry Styles?

Patrick tried to apologize, but Maggie had already hung up the phone.

I hung up my shirt in the closet.

Are you hanging out with your friends today?

I used to hang out in the school greenhouse.

Who is that boy that’s always hanging around here?

Hurry up! You’re falling behind!

If you don’t know what the word means, look it up in a dictionary!

I generally look down on people who are mean to waiters.

She looked at the painting for an hour.

I had my friend look over my English homework before I turned it in.

She looked through the assignment, but decided to start it later.

We looked around the apartment, but decided not to rent it.

Look out! The lion has escaped!

My mom told me to look out for my little brother on his first day of school.

Are you looking for your keys? They’re over here!

I read the instructions on the tag to learn how to look after my new plant.

I can’t live with the fact that I hurt you!

The amusement park did not live up to my expectations.

I told my dog to lie down on his bed.

Don’t you have something better to do than lying around the house all day?

We had a fight last night, but we made up before bedtime.

I made up a story about a tiger to tell my daughter at bedtime.

I moved out of my apartment and into a house in June.

My first dog passed away / on when I was seven.

My daughter passed the form that the teacher gave her on to me.

He held his breath for so long that he passed out!

I paid my brother back for the ice cream he bought me.

We are having a party because Tom finally paid off his house!

The criminals were not punished because they had paid off the police.

I picked up my grocery bags and walked inside.

On a long car trip, I like to see what channels we can pick up when we get to new cities.

Paula went to a boutique to pick out a gift for her mother’s birthday.

Stop picking at your scab! You need to let it heal by itself!

We got to the plant sale late and found that there wasn’t much left because the plants had been picked over by other customers.

I pointed out that he had forgotten to put on a tie.

Paula signed up for my yoga class, but she pulled out at the last moment.

We pulled into the parking lot at 7 and pulled out at 10.

She had cancer, but luckily she pulled through.

After three hours of driving, we pulled up to Grandma’s house.

Robin Hood pulled his men back into the hallway to recover.

We put up the tent under a large pine tree.

I can’t put up with her bad behavior any longer!

Please put your bag down on the table.

I put the furniture together by following the directions.

Her behavior towards the waiter really put me off.

My son keeps asking me for dessert, but I managed to put him off for a while by getting out a new toy.

I put the book back on the shelf after I finished reading it.

I asked my son to put away all of his toys.

She put out the campfire at the end of the night.

Margot put on her new hat and admired herself in the mirror.

I used to have a cat, but he ran off in the middle of the night.

The test was so long that Tom ran out of time to finish it!

My dad ran into a friend of his at the store.

We ran through our lines before the play began, to practice

Unfortunately, I ran through all of my spending money for the week in just 2 days.

Pat ran away from the bear.

Pat’s dad went to the train station with her to see her off.

He used to be my favorite singer before he sold out and started making boring music.

Carefully, he set the vase down on the table.

I didn’t set out to hurt him, but I think that I did.

She set her art out on the table at the art sale.

The burglars were caught because they set off the alarm.

My dad showed up late for the party because of the traffic.

When Sebastian was eight, he loved to show off his tricks on the monkey bars.

The real estate agent showed her clients around the house.

I signed up for a new aerobics class that starts next month.

The staff are having a pizza party. Did you sign off on this?

The guests sat down around the table for dinner.

You look like a slob in that chair. Sit up!

Paula was a shy child and her teachers always had to ask her to speak up.

Celebrities are often asked to speak out about political issues.

The teacher split up the students into four groups.

When we were teenagers, my brother would stay out late every night, but I preferred to stay in.

Does Nick need a ride home, or is he staying over tonight?

Our new boss takes over in May, after our old boss retires.

We took down the tent before packing everything else, so that it could dry in the sun.

When his mentor died, the hero took up his sword and fought the villain himself!

My friend is really angry at his parents, but he’s taking it out on me.

When my mom comes to visit, I’ll be taking her out to my favorite restaurant.

When she saw how her sister was treating her doll, Alice took it back from her.

After I got my driver’s license, I took on more responsibility for my siblings.

In tonight’s game, The Lions are taking on The Bears.

He asks his guests to take off their shoes before they enter the house.

The plane will take off at 7:45.

Everyone says I take after my mother, but in personality I am more like my dad.

After our fight, we talked over what had happened and apologized.

After Jane and Jeffrey fought, they acted like nothing was wrong, but we all knew they were just talking around the issue.

After I finished making my broth, I threw the chicken bones out / away.

Sam can’t come to school today because he threw up this morning.

I was in bed when the doorbell rang, so I threw on a robe to answer the door.

I like to go shopping, but I hate trying on clothes in the changing rooms.

Patrick likes to try out all the options before he buys a new bike.

As it turned out, my daughter did like to eat sweet potatoes.

I know that you just turned down the volume, but now it’s too quiet. Could you turn it up just a little bit?

Norah drove past the zoo so she had to turn around and come back.

He turned over the form and found more questions on the other side.

The giant robot turned into a car!

I generally wake up at 6:45, but I lie in bed for a while after that.

You should watch out for dangerous drivers on New Year’s Eve!

I usually work out at the gym near my house.

Paula and Jeffery worked out a solution: he would do the dishes and she would clean the bathrooms.

My uncle always gets worked up when he talks about football and we have to tell him to calm down.

Johnny has school from 8 to 3, so we had to work around that so that he could be in the movie.

Nick is working through a lot of issues from his childhood with his therapist.

I’m going to work on my English homework first tonight.

I think I’ll work ahead in math, because I’m going to be very busy next week.

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