Animal Phrasal Verbs! "Clam up", "wolf down", "monkey around"...

Hey there. I'm Ronnie, and this is supposed

to be a rabbit, rabbiting on. So, this is fun.

Okay? My friend and I were walking in the

park, and all of a sudden she says, "Oh, you

know what? He was rabbiting on about something."

I'm like, "Oh my god, I hate when people rabbit

on. They're so annoying." I was like, "Oh my god, what a great idea for something for

me to teach you", because it's weird. Right?

"Animals", okay, got it. You learn some animals.

And then as a phrasal verb, what has happened?

Check out the lesson also that I've done on

just the verbs of animals, which are fun, but then we get into more complicated, more

advanced levels of the phrasal verbs with

animals. So, again, a phrasal verb has a verb

plus a preposition. So, if you look at the board, and I know you don't think these are

verbs, but if you watch my other lesson, you're

going to know that they're verbs. So, "rabbit"

is a verb here, not a noun, and then "on". So, "on" is a preposition. Okay? "Around",

"for", "out", "out", "up", "down", "away",

"on", and "with" are all prepositions. These

sneaky buggers have three prepositions. Okay?

Sorry, two. "Out of" and "out of", but we'll

get to those later. So, let's start with the

first one. The meaning, the definition, and

I love this. "Rabbit on". Now, we don't think

of rabbits as talking a lot, do we? But to

"rabbit on" means to talk too much, usually about one topic. So, at a meeting, he was

rabbiting on about the sales, and I kind of get the idea that you've just lost so much

interest in it, and it's just like this big

rabbit head going... His teeth. I don't know

how it came about, but that's my imagination.

What's yours? So, if someone's rabbiting on,

they're annoying you because they're talking

too much about boring shit, which happens

a lot. Okay? You've probably maybe heard this

one, "horse around". It's a very old expression,

or "monkey around". So, when I was a kid, you know, my dad would always say, "Ronnie,

stop horsing around." I'm like, "I'm not horsing,

Dad", but I was. It basically means for kids,

stop playing. Right? To "horse around" means

to play and not do your work properly. Whatever

work I had as a child, you know. People might

say, like, "Oh, stop monkeying around and

get back to work", or "Stop horsing around, kids." Again, don't have a horse, Dad, but

thanks.

Next one, "fish for". Oh, I like this. So, you'll hear some people say, like, "She was

fishing for compliments", and you're like, "Huh? Is she catching the compliments?" So

to "fish for" something means to look for. So,

let's say I've got new eyeballs or something,

like, "Hey, guys. What's new? Do you notice

something different about me?" Yeah, new eyeballs.

"I'm fishing for compliments." Like, "Do you

like my new eyeballs?" So, we usually use

"fishing for compliments". It means that person

wants you to give them a compliment. You can

fish for other things. "Look for", "fish for

compliments", "fish for", well, I don't know,

problems. You want to start problems, you look for them, you find them.

And again, another fish. Thank you. "Find", "fish",

"find", what? "Fish out", to find something hidden.

Okay. Do you have a bag or a purse or a backpack

or something like a satchel that you carry

stuff in? I do. Here, look, see, see, see, see, see?

It's suede. It smells amazing. It's made by a witch.

Anyways, if I try to fish something out, it's

like, you know, I'm trying... Oh, I got it.

So, to "fish something out" means to find something that's probably hidden. Could be

anywhere, in your car, in your house. It has nothing to do with fish.

"Bakak". This is an old one, too. Kids to

insult kids, like, "Oh, bakak, bakak, bakak,

you're a chicken, you're going to chicken out.

Bakak." Can't think of why it's a chicken.

Doesn't matter. But it means you become scared

and you don't do something. So, like, oh man,

okay. So, next week I have to go to a party.

Yeah, but you know what? I'm going to chicken

out. I'm... I don't want to go. I'm too scared

to go, so I'm not going to go. Or he chickened

out of the sports event. He was like, yeah, yeah. Oh no. So you lose confidence because

you're scared and you don't do it. That happens. That's cool. Don't worry about it.

"Clam up". So, a clam is a shellfish. It's a

shellfish, and it opens. It's not an oyster,

but it's smaller. And to clam up, it's like the sea animals close. So it means you stop

talking because you're nervous or, again, scared. Some people get stage fright, and

they're like... They just can't talk anymore.

So, if you clam up, it means you're scared

and you can't talk. Does this happen to you?

When do you clam up? Do you clam up at meetings

or social events? You can clam up at home unless you're talking to yourself. That's

not a problem. But clamming up is kind of

like a social thing. Okay, wolf down. I like

this one. We also have pig out, which isn't

on the board, but I've taught you that before.

Wolf down. Oh, yeah. Wolf down, wolf down. It

means eat quickly. I guess wolves eat really

fast and they're down. I don't know. Again, not trying to figure out the epitomology of

these, just teaching you what they are.

Squirrel away. I like this. Have you seen a squirrel? Squirrels are awesome. Okay? So,

what they do is they hang out and they have

some nice tails, and basically they go around

and get nuts and stuff for the winter. It's

like the whole park is their shopping centre,

right? So, they go and they get all their nuts, and I think they keep them in their

cheeks. Could be chipmunks, not too sure. And what they do is they save them in their

tree house. Yes, they live in a tree. Wish I

lived in a tree. So, to squirrel away means

to save something. So, nuts go around, nuts go around, squirrels go around, they gather

nuts and they save them in their house, and

they're like, no nuts here. Nope, just a squirrel.

Rat on. Super old expression as well. You'll

see these in lots of, like, black and white

cool movies. He's a rat. He's a dirty rat.

To rat on someone means to give information,

usually to the authoritaz, or authority, if you say it in a normal way. We use this

a lot in jail terms. Oh, that guy ratted on me, or he ratted me out. When you're a kid,

like, oh, Kevin ratted on me to the teacher.

So, basically Kevin told the teacher that

you did something bad. Kevin, rabbiting on, are we, Kevin?

Monkey with. I like this one, too. Monkeys

are getting pretty popular here. Now, pretend

to fix. Do you know what "pretend" means? Yeah, it means, like, you're not doing it

properly. So, maybe you have something that needs fixing in your house, and someone in

your house is like, oh, don't call a professional,

I can fix it. It's like, no, you have no experience

in plumbing, which means fixing water. No, no,

that's fine. So, they monkey with something,

inevitably, which means 100% going to happen,

it's not going to work. So, you pretend to

fix something, but it doesn't work and you're

just in a worse-off situation. You monkey

with something, it's like you play with it,

but you don't know what you're doing and you

mess it up. Part of life, right?

Oh, man, this one's good. A worm. Worm's like

a little guy that lives in the earth. You

worm your way out. Oh, man, I like this one.

It means you talk, or rabbit, your way out

of a problem. Some people are very good at

this. Is it manipulation? We haven't figured

it out yet, but to worm your way out of something

means you're in a problem or kind of a bad

situation, but you use the gift of the gab or your talking abilities to get out of the

situation. So, he wormed his way out of the problem.

Last but not least, quack, one of my favourites.

Duck, quack, out of. Now, duck, a verb, means

you, like, move, usually down, so something doesn't hit in your head. So, if you duck

out of something, it means you escape or leave

quickly. Great for all my fans out there who

have to leave meetings. You're not leaving

now, you're quack. You're going to duck out.

Like, oh, man, I got to duck out of this meeting.

I'll be back soon. Not coming back. So, duck

out of means to leave quickly, escape, flee,

business meetings, any kind of meetings that

are boring, you can do that. Again, I don't

know why we have animals as verbs, but I guess

we get bored and drunk, and this is how we do it.

So, I'm ducking out here, quack. See you later.