15 PHRASAL VERBS with meanings you can’t guess!

Hi, everybody. Welcome to www.engvid.com. I'm Adam. In today's video, I'm going to teach

you some more phrasal verbs, but these are a little bit tricky because we're going to

look at some eating phrasal verbs. These include food items or food cooking techniques, but

the meanings of the phrasal verbs have nothing to do with food or eating. So they're a little

bit confusing that way, but they're kind of interesting and very important to know because

we use all of these in regular, everyday English situations. So, again, this is an example.

On this side, I've listed food items, things that you can eat, like beef, chicken, fish,

duck, clam. "Veg" is short for vegetables or milk that you can drink. And here, we have

eating situations, eating actions or cooking actions. So, you can chew or you can swallow,

so you chew your food and then you swallow it. You can boil, cut, or use a pan in your

cooking. But when we look at the meanings of these phrasal verbs, none of them have

anything to do with food or cooking or eating or anything like that. So, very interesting

to know. So, let's get started with "beef up". What does it mean to beef up? It doesn't mean

it has nothing to do with cows or bulls or the beef you have in your hamburger or in

your stew. "To beef up" has two meanings, actually. On a personal meaning, if a person

wants to beef up, he or she wants to get bigger, more muscles. Usually, it could be muscles

or it could just be gaining weight, but most people who go to the gym and work out a lot

and get bigger and bigger muscles, they are beefing up. But you can also beef up something

like security. So, the police will beef up security when the president comes to visit.

That means increase or put more police officers or sort of agents all over the city to make

sure there's stronger and more security apparatus. Okay? So, that is "beef up".

"Chicken out". So, again, chicken you can eat. And if you think about a chicken, if

you go try to catch a chicken, it will run away. It's a little bit scared of you, right?

So, that's what "chicken out" means. It means to be afraid and not do something at the last

minute. So, let's say there's a group of friends and we go to the sea, and there's a big cliff.

And from the cliff, you can jump a very long way down into the water. So, we have five

friends and the first one jumps and lands in the water and he's okay. The second one,

third, fourth one jumps. The fifth one, the fifth friend comes to the edge of the cliff

and looks down, gets very scared and decides to walk down to the water. So, he "chickened

out". He changed his mind because he was scared. He didn't do the jump because he was scared. So,

"chickened out". He "chickened out". "To fish through". So, fish, basically, when you go

fishing, you take your pole in the water and you're trying to find something. You're trying

to catch something. When you fish through some things, files or containers or boxes,

you're looking for something, right? It doesn't... You don't necessarily need to know what you're

looking for, but you're looking for something specific and you hope that you'll be able

to find it. So, you're fishing through the container, you're fishing through the file,

hoping to find something that you need, hoping to catch it. So, similar to going fishing

in the sea, you're fishing for something in a box, in a file. Okay?

Next, "duck". So, "duck", again, very delicious meat, but that's not what we're talking about

here. When you "duck down" means you're bending down because something is coming at you. So,

if a ball is flying at you, like in a baseball game, and somebody says "duck", and you "duck

down" means you avoid the ball hitting you in the head. Okay? And that's "duck down".

"Duck out". If you're at a party and you're maybe a little bit bored, or you don't like

the people there, or you just want to go home and sleep, but you don't want everybody to notice,

you "duck out" of the party. You leave quietly, like, in secret. So, "duck out" of the party,

the room, the office, etc. You can "duck out" of the office so the boss doesn't see you leaving.

Okay? "Clam". A "clam" is like a little shellfish, and it looks like this, and then it opens up in

the water, and it comes, and there's a little meat inside. Again, very delicious, but it's

also a living thing. If you "clam up", which is a little strange because a "clam", like,

opens and closes its shell, when it's up, it's open. But when we say to "clam up", it means to

shut the mouth. So, if somebody "clams up", they stop talking. They become very shy or very nervous,

and they don't say anything because they don't want to make a mistake, or they don't want to

embarrass themselves, whatever the situation. If you tell someone "clam up", which is a little bit

old-fashioned, people don't really say anymore, it basically means "shut up", don't talk anymore.

Older people might still say it, like, older teachers might say it to little kids, but

a little bit old-fashioned. We usually talk about a person's reaction. So, a teacher called the

student, and the student was very nervous and "clammed up", just didn't speak and didn't say

anything, didn't do anything. "To veg out". So, a vegetable... If you think... What does a vegetable

do? Well, a vegetable doesn't do anything. It's not an... It's not an animate thing, right? It's

not an animal. It just lies there. It just sits, doesn't do anything. So, "to veg out" means to

relax, to stay at home on your couch and do nothing, maybe watch TV. So, relax, veg out.

"To milk for". Now, two ways. "To milk someone or something for something else" means to try to

squeeze something out of someone. So, if you milk... Like, if you think about a con artist,

like a person who cheats people for money, this con artist will try to milk his victim

for all the money they have. He will try to squeeze all their money out of them. So, think

about a cow. You squeeze the udders trying to get all the milk out. If you... If you have a person,

like a victim, and you're trying to cheat them for money, you squeeze all the money out of them. You

milk them for all their money. And you can use it in other situations. "My boss is on vacation,

so I will milk the time he's away for all the pleasure I can get." So, I'm not going to work

too hard because the boss can't see anything. I will milk the situation and just relax for a

couple of weeks. Okay, so these are food items. Now, let's talk about eating or cooking.

So, "to chew". That's chewing. You put the food in your mouth, you break it down with your teeth.

But if you chew over something, you're thinking about it, you're considering it. Okay? So,

"The boss offered me a raise and a promotion, but I have to work an extra day per week,

and my vacation time will be shorter." So, I say to him, "That's a good offer. Let me chew it over,

and I'll tell you next week. Let me consider it. Let me think about it."

And then the next week comes, and I say to my boss, "You know, no thank you. I'll keep my salary,

I'll keep my position. I want to keep my vacations." So, my boss gets very, very angry,

and he chews me out. So, "to chew out" means to yell at someone, to be angry at someone and yell

at them and tell them all the bad things you want to say to them. So, it's almost like he puts me in

his mouth and chews me and then spits me out, but not literally. Right? Just to yell at someone.

"Boil over". So, think about if you've ever boiled anything, like if you're boiling potatoes,

for example, and you put the potatoes in the water, and you turn on the heat,

and you put a cover. After a while, the water will boil. If you don't take the cover off,

the water will boil, boil, and then boil over the pot. Right? So, we can use the same situation,

the same scenario about, basically, situations. Difficult situations or dangerous situations.

So, when something boils over, it goes past the point of being stable. It becomes... It

loses control. So, let's say two nations are... They don't like each other, and they always say

something, and say something, and say something, but then one day, somebody throws a rock over the

border fence. So then, that hatred that they have for each other boils over, and then everybody

starts fighting, and then there's a war. So, when a situation becomes too hot, you could say,

or too passionate, or too whatever, like the situation builds and builds until it loses

control. It boils over, and then there's a consequence. If something boils down to...

Boils down to, like, again, if you're thinking about cooking, if you put water and you boil it,

eventually, the water will boil down to the bottom, and there'll be nothing left. Boiled

down to, in other situations, means the bottom line, which is another idiomatic expression.

If you have many things to consider, but when you have to make your final decision,

that decision will boil down to one aspect. Lots of things to consider,

but the most important thing, that's what it will boil down to.

Or, let's say you have... I'm a teacher, and I have two students. They're fighting,

and they're being loud in class, and disrupting everybody. So, I try to make peace between them,

but then it boils down to me not being able to teach. So, the most important factor in this

situation is that I can't teach. So, I just kick them out of the class, and I tell them,

"One, go to the principal. One, go to the guidance counselor. My class is quiet. I can teach. The

other students can learn." I hope that's a little bit clear. That's a long explanation there.

But boiled down to, focus on the main or most important part. Cut up. So, you can cut up your

vegetables, you can cut up your meat, etc. You can cut up a person. Okay? If you cut up...

If you cut up a person, means you're... One meaning could be you're insulting them,

you're cutting them up, you're making jokes about them. You can also cut up people in general,

means you make them laugh very much. A comedian, the comedian cut me up, he made me laugh really

hard. Or... Well, actually, I'll leave it at that. There's other meanings to it, but in terms of the

ones you can't guess, that's the most important. To cut up someone, to insult them, or...

Make them look bad, or to make people laugh. Swallow up. Swallow up means accept. Like,

when you take food, you swallow it, you accept it into your body. When somebody is trying to

sell you something and you swallow it up, it means you accept it without any questions, right? So,

a good salesman will make his buyers swallow up anything he gives them. In school, some teachers

will teach their students, and their students will love the teacher so much they will swallow up

anything he says, which is a very dangerous thing. But if it's a good teacher, it can be a very good

thing. And pan out. So, you know a pan, like for frying. If something pans out, it means it was

completed successfully. So, all your plans panned out means they were successful, they were completed

the way they were intended to. Another meaning for pan out is if you're thinking about a camera

and you're focusing on the scene or whatever, and then you pan out, it means you get a wider

view of what's around this particular scene, like the panoramic. So, the camera pans out,

gets a wider scene there. Okay? So, that's all there is for these phrasal verbs. Again,

remember, phrasal verbs, verb and preposition, always remember that there probably is at least

one or two or even three more meanings than the words themselves. Okay? And you have to make sure

you understand what those are. If you want to make sure you understand these phrasal verbs,

go to www.engvid.com. There's a quiz. You can take the quiz and test your knowledge of these

phrasal verbs. You can also ask me questions in the comments section at www.engvid.com.

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See you then. Bye-bye.