work up

See also: workup

English

Verb

work up (third-person singular simple present works up, present participle working up, simple past and past participle worked up)

1. To raise; to excite; to stir up.

   Synonyms: rouse; see also Thesaurus:thrill

   He worked up the public's passions to rage.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     In the eyes of Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke the apotheosis of the Celebrity was complete. The people of Asquith were not only willing to attend the house-warming, but had been worked up to the pitch of eagerness.

2. To develop.

   I shall have worked up an appetite with all this heavy work.

   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbj&oslash￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 185:

     "See how it's working up; we shall have thunder and lightning."

   • 1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 127:

     "As evidence of the degraded nature of the prisoner's mind," said Quin. "That's what they call working up a case."

3. (transitive, medicine) To give (a patient) a general medical examination to assess health and fitness.
4. (obsolete, transitive) To use up (material, etc.).
5. (obsolete, nautical) To set at an irksome or needless task.

Translations

to raise; to excite; to stir up.

Polish: wzniecać (pl) impf, wzniecić (pl) pf, podburzać (pl) impf, podburzyć pf, pobudzać (pl) impf, pobudzić (pl) pf, ożywiać (pl) impf, ożywić (pl) pf

to develop — see also develop

Polish: rozwijać (pl) impf, rozwinąć (pl) pf, rozbudzać impf, rozbudzić pf Spanish: desarrollar (es), levantar (es), dar (es), abrir (es)