Phrasal Verbs: Use These 7 To Sound AMAZING!

Phrasal verbs are one of the trickiest parts  of English. And today we're looking at phrasal  

verbs that use a word for an animal but the  meaning doesn't have to do with the animal.

Since the meanings might  be new or confusing to you,  

I'll give you plenty of examples  from real life so you know exactly  

how to use them to express yourself  effectively in English conversation.

First ‘rat out’. Rat. The classic  New York City animal and a tester  

in labs all over. Rat out means to inform  someone in authority about something wrong  

that someone has done. For example,  I ratted out my friends for cheating  

in the ninth grade. I felt bad about it  but I knew it was the right thing to do.

Have you ever ratted anyone out?

If you both say nothing you'll each get  say a year in jail. If you rat out your  

friend you might get off scot-free while  your friend gets the maximum sentence and  

if you both rat each other out, you'll both  get a few years. If you rat out your friend,

What was that like joining? Was  the crew already pretty tight?

Was it? I'm not asking you to  rat out like your colleagues

No, of course not. It's a really  good group of people and--

I'm not asking you to rat out your colleagues--

You know, the big thing magicians are  not supposed to rat out each other's  

tricks and they're like no we're  going to, we're going to do that.

Rat out each other's tricks--

Because they can use them as leverage  to drive uh plea bargains because they  

can use them to turn low-level offenders  and get them to um rat out their bosses.

And get them to rat out their bosses.

The wife of the president said that people have  to eat healthy so we need to plant a garden. My  

friend said that he then proceeded to rat out his  friend and I won't name his friend because there  

are cameras here, but he ratted out his friend who  quote eats bad food and therefore is not healthy.

Proceeded to rat out his friend.

Rat out. To inform authority about  something wrong or illegal that someone  

has done she ratted out her boss when she  realized he was cheating on his taxes.

Next: beef up. Beef is the meat we get  from cows but ‘beef up’ means to give more  

substance or strength to something. For  example, “I understand your argument for  

changing the testing format but you might  want to beef it up with more examples on  

how it's helped students.” or “He's really  beefed up since he started lifting weights.”

Based on where it's earned or where the  corporation lives and deemphasize that element,  

and instead beef up the idea of taxing the  income based on where the shareholders live.

Beef up the idea of taxing--

$1,000 check, yes a giant check  for a grand like a rent check,  

meant to help beef up the  school's library collection.

Meant to help beef up the  school's library collection.

Do you feel that now, because you were  in the public eye that you sort of have  

to beef up your knowledge of, I mean  you wrote an entire book on evolution,  

clearly you felt you had to  beef up your knowledge on that.

That you sort of have to beef up your knowledge.

But the flood left over $3 billion in  damage in its wake prompting the federal  

government to beef up flood control  along the Ohio river and in Memphis.

To beef up flood control.

Skills if you just want to come back to  school and, and maybe you need to beef  

up your computer skills you can do that  at your local community college and I--

maybe you need to beef up your computer skills,

Beef up. To give more substance  or strength to something.

You need to beef up your argument  if you're going to convince me.

Next: fawn over.

A fawn is a baby deer but to fawn over means to  

praise someone too much and give  them a lot of attention. Really,  

too much attention. It can seem insincere.  He really fawns over his oldest daughter,  

I think it makes the other two feel left out.

Have you ever seen someone fawning over someone else?

He's such a humble human being. He's so  

self-deprecating and he hates  it when people fawn over him.

When people fawn over him.

She is very in charge of her sexuality like men  just fawn over her kind of thing. She's very,  

very beautiful and men just fawn over her.

That we fawn over people in our lives as a  way to prevent them from harming us again.

We fawn over people in our lives--

I'm a journalist by nature so that's how I  operate. I'm not ready to fawn over something  

and I'm not ready to bash something,  I'm not ready to fawn over something,

Forbidden romance is the thing a lot of  people idealize and fawn over rooting for  

it to work out in the end through  all the trials and tribulations.

A lot of people idealize and fawn over.

Fawn over. To praise someone and give  them a lot of positive attention. She  

fawns over the smartest kids in class  and forgets about the rest of us.

Next: squirrel away. A squirrel is a small animal  found all over the place in the US. By the way,  

I know this word is really tricky to pronounce and  I do have a video on how to pronounce squirrel.  

They're very common. Parks, yards. Squirrels  gather and save acorns. So, to squirrel away  

means to put something in a safe or secret place  especially so it can be kept for the future.

For example, “He's been squirreling  away money for retirement.”

When we have exciting new ideas our first instinct  is to squirrel them away so no one can steal them.

to squirrel them away.

They follow the rules because there's somebody  looking over their shoulders but they find ways  

to like teachers. will follow the scripted  curriculum but they'll do it at double time.  

And so they squirrel away 10 minutes here  and 20 minutes there and a half hour there.

They squirrel away 10 minutes here.

There's Americans who are going to have  terribly insecure retirements they're  

going to have to live on whatever they've  managed to squirrel away to their own savings.

to squirrel away to their own savings.

I have a lot left over depending on the project.  

Extra scraps that I would then go  squirrel away in my fabric stash.

I would then go squirrel away--

The first thing it deals with  is 50 bucks. You can squirrel  

away 50 bucks. Just try, believe in yourself.

You can squirrel away 50 bucks.

Squirrel away.

To save something for the future.

I've been squirreling away his old soccer  jerseys throughout his childhood because  

I want to make a quilt out of  them when he goes to college.

Next: chicken out. A chicken, a common barnyard  animal one of the main staples of the American  

diet. To chicken out means to decide not  to do something because you're afraid.

For example, “I was going to jump off  the high dive but I chickened out.”  

Have you ever chickened out of doing something?

If you only really talk to them over text,  if there's no in-person interaction well  

then guess what? You can tell them  all day how you like them but when  

it finally comes the meeting face to  face, you're going to chicken out.

You're going to chicken out.

Okay, I've made this appointment and I,  I need to go but I, I always chicken out  

and I get really anxious and I don't, you  know I get overwhelmed, and so I can't go.

I always chicken out.

They were coming from this feeling like, “Oh  my God, I'm not going to do this, I'm going to  

chicken out, I'm not going to do this and it's  going to be the biggest mistake of my life.”

I'm going to chicken out,  I'm not going to do this.

That in the book um, The Gunslinger, he kills  the little kid. And in the movie of course  

they chicken out, they don't show it don't  talk about it nothing I was mortified so--

They chicken out, they don't show  it, don't talk about it nothing--

Because Mitch McConnell decided to chicken out  and even though reports as recently as this  

time yesterday were telling us that McConnell  was secretly cheering on impeachment, yeah.

Decided to chicken out.

Another thing that I want to get more  confident on at least is skiing steep stuff,  

because if I think about it for too  long I generally tend to chicken out.

I generally tend to chicken out.

Chicken out. To not do  something because you're afraid.

She says she'll go bungee jumping with me  

on vacation but I'm afraid  she's going to chicken out.

Next: wolf down. You may know that a wolf  is a wild animal, part of the dog family.  

To wolf down is when you eat as fast as  possible, as if you were a ravenous wolf  

in the wild. To eat without table manners.  After the marathon she wolfed down a bagel.

Where couples in courtship would keep a slice of  apple crammed under their armpit during dances,  

and at the end of the evening the girl would  give the guy she most fancied her used fruit  

and if he the feeling was mutual, he  would wolf down that stinky apple.

He would wolf down that stinky apple--

Well, that's just weird.

These fruits don't hold a candle to the very worst  thing, Zimmern said. He had to wolf down though  

fermented spoiled food like Iceland's Hakarl  ranks as his absolute least favorite thing to try.

Zimmern said he had to wolf down.

And if you follow some recommendations,  you should take a long time eating food  

because we are a nation of under chewers  that we uh, we just wolf down our food--

that we just wolf down our food--

A Disney princess who can  make this incredible. Alright,  

I will not subject to you guys to  watch me wolf down the rest of this,

to watch me wolf town the rest of this,

He just knows to move these around but he  can't come in here with an open mouth and  

wolf it down. And that's when you run the risk  of choke because you wolf down too much at once.

With an open mouth and wolf it down.

Wolf down. To eat very fast.

Will you please wolf down your  sandwich? we need to get going.

Our final phrasal verb, okay it's  not an animal but it's the word  

‘farm’. It's to ‘farm out’. It means to  send out or subcontract work to others.

For example, “I don't think my audio editor does  

all his own editing. I think he farms  out some of the work to his friends.”

I saw that happen for 10 years  straight and there's no way I want  

to pay a company to learn that much  and not get the learning. So this,  

it's one thing. Like, I'll farm out  graphic design, I'll Farm out engineering,  

if we have to. Um, there's I'll farm out  pretty much anything to build capacity,

I'll farm out graphic design,  I'll farm out engineering,

Assignments that you can easily farm out to some  third party. Assignments that you can easily farm  

out to some third party. People who were studying  with him as though he were a school and paying  

him to do that, um and he would farm out an  apprentice to each house for the most part.

He would farm out an apprentice to each house--

How is filtering information going  to be more collaborative, how do we,  

uh farm out some of the work to machines.

How do we farm out some of the work to machines.

Uh, some of the stuff we do ourselves and  some of the stuff we farm out to a vendor.

Some the stuff we do ourselves on  the stuff we farm out to a vendor.

Farm out. To subcontract work to others.

They farm out their call center overseas.

Seven phrasal verbs and here's a challenge:  

Take one of them and write a sentence  in the comments below using it.

Keep your learning going now with this  video and don't forget to subscribe with  

notifications on so you never miss  a video. I love being your English  

teacher. That's it and thanks so  much for using Rachel's English.