what’s up doc?
The basic meaning of the two-letter English word up is “towards a higher place or position” but it crops up everywhere in our language, although whether it’s the most used word is up for debate and the linguists might be up in arms about such a suggestion.
However, in the morning you wake up and (if you’re not laid up with a back that has seized up) you get up although the windows are all steamed up and you’re fed up that it’s Monday. You might, if you’re well brought up, make up the bed or at least cover up the sheets. You’re late so don’t have time for a fry-up for breakfast and worse still your car won't start up so you’ll have to run up the road and hope the local shop has already opened up because you will need to buy up all their iced buns for the office. Luckily you don’t have to queue up for long for your rail ticket and won’t have to make up excuses or butter up your boss for missing the train again. Hopefully you won’t meet up so he doesn’t lecture you about loosening up and the dangers of bottling up resentment! You’ll be tied up in meetings today, there’s no let-up; make sure you don’t stir up any trouble. You don’t want to be runner-up for that promotion you’re up for, so if your subject comes up, you might need to speak up about the officers up for election and then volunteer to write up the minutes. As a back-up plan, you might need to size up the competition and set them up for a fall!
In your lunch hour you look up and phone up your friends and invite them up for the weekend. There’ll be gossip to catch up on! And… there’s going to have to be a lot of cleaning and tidying up but you can fix up something to eat the night before and heat it up on Saturday – or pick up a takeaway. You might even dress up to go out. Don’t forget to lock up the house. You hope the weather will clear up before the weekend because if it rains, not only will it block up your drains but it’ll mess up your hair style.
Do we seem to be pretty mixed up about up?
If you’re up to it, look it up in the dictionary. it takes up almost 1/4 of the page. You could build up a list of the ways up is used. The different uses of up in this article add up to 63. Can you up that? It might take up some time, but if you don't give up, you may end up with over a hundred.
I could go on, but time is up; I'll wrap it up and… shut up.
