Top 11 Weird Phrasal Verbs for Daily English Conversation

Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.  

Are you ready to learn something  weird? Let's talk about it. 

Do you love phrasal verbs? A phrasal verb is a  two-part verb, like try out or give up. And a  

lot of English learners feel a little bit stressed  about phrasal verbs. Today, I would like to help  

relieve some of the stress by having some fun  and slightly weird phrasal verbs that we use  

in daily conversation in English, and that you  can use too, and hopefully have a little laugh. 

I chose these phrasal verbs because I felt like  they're a little bit unusual, and the base verb,  

like to give up or try out, give or try, is a  little bit different than what you would normally  

guess it should mean. So make sure that you  pay attention to these weird phrasal verbs,  

because at the end of this lesson, there's a test. Let's get started with the first one. To squirrel  

away. I'm not going to tell you immediately what  this means. Instead, I'm going to tell you a  

sample sentence and I'd like you to guess what  you think it means. Well, I bought some Christmas  

presents in October and I squirreled them away  until December. Hmm. Do you know what a squirrel  

is? It's this animal, and a squirrel is known for  hiding its food until the winter. So during the  

warm months, during the summer, it finds acorns  and walnuts and any kind of nut, and it buries  

it in the ground. It hides it for the winter time. So, we can take this same concept and imagine what  

this phrasal verb means. You are hiding something  until you need to use it. You could say, "He  

squirrels away his money in a hole in the ground."  This is kind of more literally like a squirrel,  

right? But it's that same concept, that  you are hiding it until you need it. 

Weird phrasal verb number two is to scarf  down. Hmm, a scarf is usually something that  

you wear on your neck to keep you warm in  the winter, but what if I said this to you,  

"I was so hungry that I just scarfed down  my food." Hmm? Are you eating a scarf?  

Are you cooking a scarf? No. Instead, this  means that you're eating something quickly.  

You are scarfing it down. This is similar to  another phrasal verb, to gobble up your food.  

So, you could say, "I woke up so late  that I had to scarf down my breakfast  

while I brushed my hair," or, "I woke up so late  that I had to gobble up my breakfast while I was  

brushing my hair." This idea of eating quickly  because you're so hungry or out of necessity. 

Our next weird phrasal verb is to beef up. Hmm?  Beef is a type of meat from a cow. What if I  

said this, "I wanted to beef up my waffles,  so I added some dark chocolate and berries."  

Beef on waffles sounds awful, but the good news  is that this phrasal verb has nothing to do with  

meat. Instead, it means that you're increasing or  you're improving something. I wanted to improve my  

waffles, so I added some dark chocolate and  berries and mixed it up, and then I made my  

waffles. This is definitely improving my waffles.  Or we could say, "The security was beefed up  

during the presidential speech." So whenever  there is an important public figure who is  

giving a speech and there's common people around,  well, there's probably more security than normal,  

so we could say, "The security was beefed up  during the presidential speech." So it was  

increased during the presidential speech. Our next weird phrasal verb is to butt in.  

Do you know what a butt is? It's your backside.  We can imagine here, butt in. Hmm. Look at this  

sentence. The annoying guy at the party kept  butting in and talking about himself. So annoying.  

He kept butting in. Is he pushing people with  his butt? I hope not. This is the literal sense,  

but figuratively, we can imagine that  he is interrupting with his words. 

Sometimes this is okay or necessary, but if you do  it too much, it can be really annoying. We can use  

this as an informal way to apologize or interrupt  someone in a more polite way. If you say,  

"Sorry for butting in, but can you tell me where  the bathroom is?" So if you're at someone's house  

and some people are talking and you're not part  of that conversation, well, if you need to ask  

them a question, you're going to need to interrupt  them. So how can you interrupt them in a polite,  

but kind of casual way? You could say this phrase.  You could say, "Sorry to butt in, but where's your  

restroom? Where's your bathroom?" Sorry to butt  in. Sorry to interrupt, and that's very polite.  

Just don't butt in too much or you'll be like  that first annoying guy who butted in too much. 

The next weird phrasal verb is to chicken out.  Are you taking a chicken and throwing it out of  

the house? No. Instead, look at this sentence.  I wanted to go skydiving, but I chickened out  

at the last second. Hmm. This means that I was  at the skydiving place, I was all hooked up,  

and then I saw the airplane and  I looked up in the sky and said,  

"No way. I can't do it. I chickened out." Hmm.  That means that I was too scared to do something. 

Usually this phrase is used in a negative  way when we're talking about someone else.  

If you said this sentence, maybe your sister  would feel a little bit embarrassed. "My sister  

said that she would sing at karaoke, but when it  came to be her turn, she chickened out." Hmm. This  

kind of implies that you think her fear is  irrational. It's kind of like a stupid fear.  

"Why did you chicken out? I wouldn't chicken out  if I sang karaoke. Why did you?" So if you say  

this about someone else, make sure that you say  it lightly with a light heart. But of course, you  

could say it about yourself, "Yeah, I chickened  out before I went skydiving," and it's much  

softer because you're just talking about yourself. Our next weird phrasal verb is to clam up.  

Do you know what a clam is? It's this thing. It's  got two sides of a shell, and what happens if it  

clams up? Take a look at this sentence. The robber  clammed up when the detective asked him where he  

hid the money. So someone, the robber, has stolen  money and the detective is trying to figure out  

where it is. Well, do you think that the robber  is telling him where he hid the money or is he  

clamming up? He is keeping the information  inside him. He is hiding that information. 

So we're using the phrasal verb clam up to mean  that your mouth is closed. You are not telling  

some information. Or in a more lighthearted way,  we could say, "My sister clammed up when I asked  

her where my favorite dress was." Hmm. Maybe  I suspect that she took my favorite dress and  

either it got ripped, something happened to it, it  got a big stain and she's embarrassed to tell me  

about it, or she's scared to tell me about it. So  when I ask her, "Hey, what happened to my favorite  

dress? It's not in my closet," maybe my sister  closes her mouth and says nothing. She clams up. 

The next weird phrasal verb is to flip out. You  might say, "My mom is going to flip out when she  

realizes what happened to her dishes." Maybe we  threw a ball in the house and all of her dishes  

crashed and broke. Oh no. Do you think my mom is  going to say, "Oh, that's okay. We'll just buy  

some new dishes." No, she's going to flip out.  That means that she is going to get very angry. 

Now, we can use this in a positive sense to say  really excited and it all depends on the context.  

Let's take a look at another sentence. I  flipped out when I realized that my team won the  

championship. Am I really angry that my team won?  No, of course, I'm really excited. So here, we're  

talking about that loss of control of your  emotions. You're not in control of your emotions  

anymore. You're either really angry, "Oh, you  broke my dishes. My mom is going to freak out," or  

flip out. We use both of these interchangeably,  or I'm losing control of my emotions in a  

positive way. "I flipped out when my team won." We can, like I said, exchange the phrasal verb,  

freak out. This is a little bit stronger. "I  freaked out," and it's maybe a little bit more  

crass. This means a little bit more rude than  flip out. I would say that, first, flip out is  

more normal in daily conversation and freak out is  a little bit more rude. Not really rude, but just  

a little bit more, but they both have a similar  meaning. You're losing control of your emotions. 

Our next weird phrasal verb is to gross out.  Make sure that you pronounce this word correctly,  

gross, gross. You could say, "I was grossed  out when my cat threw up on my shoe."  

This is disgusting. It's not a good  situation. I was grossed out. I went,  

"Oh, that's not good." I was grossed out. Or if  you have a younger or older brother, you might  

say, "My brother is always trying to find new  ways to gross me out. He thinks it's so funny,  

but I don't." He's trying to make me feel  disgusted, maybe showing me different worms  

that he finds or different strange things that  he's doing. He thinks it's entertaining, but I  

don't think it is. He's trying to gross me out. Our next weird phrasal verb is to lighten up,  

to lighten up. Notice the pronunciation of this  word, lighten, lighten. A lot of English learners  

ask me about T-E-N at the end of words. This  might be a word like threaten, button, lighten.  

I have a whole English lesson about these really  difficult T words in English. You can check out  

that lesson up here. I think it's called,  106 Difficult English Words to Pronounce,  

and it includes these words. So we're  going to kind of swallow the last sound,  

lighten, lighten, to lighten up. Hmm. Take a look at this sentence. The  

conversation was getting too serious, so I  tried to lighten it up with a joke. Hmm. Here  

we have a conversation that's very serious and  I want the conversation to become less serious.  

Well, the opposite of serious is light. So we're  going to use this phrasal verb. I tried to lighten  

the conversation up, lighten it up with a joke. We can also use this phrasal verb to provide some  

kind of encouragement to someone else, especially  for situations where they're feeling a little bit  

sad, but it's not too serious. So you could  say, "Hey, lighten up. Things could be worse."  

So let's imagine that your cat threw  up on your shoe. Pretty gross, right?  

Well, maybe your friend says, "Hey,  lighten up. Things could be worse.  

Your shoe could be in the middle of a cow pasture  and a cow could have pooped on your shoe." Oh,  

that's worse. Oh, that's awful. So your friend  is trying to give some encouragement for this  

light, not too serious situation. I definitely do not recommend using this  

in a serious situation. So let's imagine that your  friend's dog dies and your friend is really sad.  

They're having a really difficult time with this,  understandably. Dogs can be like family members,  

right? Well, if you're trying to comfort  your friend, you should not say, "Hey,  

lighten up. Maybe you can find another  dog," or, "Oh, lighten up. Let's go  

kick around a soccer ball." This is too serious  of a situation, so I recommend only using it to  

comfort someone in a very non-serious, sad moment,  like a cat puked on your shoe. You're trying to  

make the situation funny because it's not so  serious. So if you are trying to comfort in  

a serious situation, you can avoid lighten up. Our next weird phrasal verb is to screw up. Do  

you know what a screw is? It's this, something  that you use when you're building something. But  

is this phrasal verb related to building,  to screw up? If I say, "Ah, I screwed up,"  

does it mean I'm building something? No. Instead,  take a look at this sentence. I screwed up the  

recipe and added too much salt. Oh no. This means  that I ruined the recipe. I did something awful  

that destroyed my meal. I screwed up the recipe. Or we could simply say, "I screwed it up. Sorry  

guys, we're going to have to order pizza, because  the meal I was making is ruined." Or you might  

say, "If you screw up, it's best to admit your  mistakes and try to make it better." If you  

screw up. Just a little note, this phrasal verb is  very casual, so I do not recommend using this in a  

business situation. If you forgot about a project  that you were supposed to have finished at work,  

do not say, "Sorry, boss. I screwed up." It's a  little too casual. Maybe if your work atmosphere  

is very, very laid back, very casual and relaxed,  maybe you could say that, but overall, I recommend  

using this only for daily conversations.  "Oh, I screwed up. How can I make it better?" 

Our final strange phrasal verb is to space  out. Hmm, space is air or space is outer space,  

something beyond the Earth's atmosphere. The  moon, the sun, Mars are in outer space. All of  

the stars are in outer space. Hmm, to space  out. Does this mean you are an astronaut?  

No. Instead, take a look at this sentence.  I spaced out in class and when the teacher  

called on me, I didn't know the answer.  You can imagine you're sitting in class.  

You're not paying attention. You're just  staring off into space, that's what we say.  

Staring off into space and then the teacher  says, "Vanessa, what's the answer?" Oh, oh,  

I don't know. You spaced out and you're not  present. Your attention is not in that moment. Or  

we could say, "The politician's speech was so long  and boring that almost all of the audience stopped  

paying attention and just spaced out." Maybe they  looked into space, so they closed their eyes. Hmm. 

I hope that this lesson was not too boring and  you didn't space out. I hope it was interesting.  

If you spaced out, well, now it's time for a test.  Hmm. So I hope that you'll be able to at least  

guess some of the correct answers. I'm going to  be telling you three sentences and there will be  

a blank in the sentence. You need to guess,  what is the best phrasal verb to go in the  

sentence? Let's take a look at the first one. Number one, I'm totally, I just saw a bear walk  

close to me in the dark. I'm totally flipping out  or I'm totally clamming up. Hmm. What do you think  

is the best phrasal verb for this sentence? This  actually happened to me. I was staining our deck  

outside. This is like a paint, like an oil paint  that you put on wood. And it was late at night,  

nine or 10:00 PM. I was just trying to finish it.  And I heard a sound like that, very deep sound.  

And I looked up and there, right in  front of the deck, was a huge, huge bear. 

And where I live, bears are black,  they're black bears. So in the dark,  

it's almost impossible to see them. Thankfully, I  was on the deck, but it was a little too close to  

me. And I ran inside and said, "Dan." That's my  husband. "Dan, there's a bear outside. Go look."  

And we looked outside, the  bear crossed our driveway,  

crossed through our front yard, and it just  walked into someone else's yard. There are  

many bears around where I live, but it's not  common to see them because usually they're shy.  

They don't come out in public much, except to  dig through your trash and stuff like this. 

But the original sentence is I,  Hmm. What do you think I did? I  

am totally flipping out. "There's a bear! Oh my  goodness, let's go see it! Oh, it was so close to  

me!" This is a very shocking situation. All right, test sentence number two. I  

should, this essay because it's only one  paragraph. I should scarf down this essay or  

I should beef up this essay. What is the  best weird phrasal verb for the sentence?  

I should beef up this essay, because it's only one  paragraph. If you gave your teacher an essay that  

was only one paragraph, they'd probably look at  it and say, "Did you forget to write this? Why is  

it so short?" So you need to improve it. You need  to add more to that essay. You need to beef it up. 

Test sentence, number three. To speak confidently  in English, I need to take a deep breath  

and, about my mistakes. And screw up about my  mistakes or, and lighten up about my mistakes.  

Which weird phrasal verb feels the best? Hmm.  Well, you need to lighten up about your mistakes.  

Don't feel too serious about making  mistakes. It is part of learning. 

So I'd like to know, tell me in the comments, what  was your score on this little phrasal verb test?  

Let me know in the comments and don't chicken  out. Tell me. Well, thank you so much for learning  

English with me and I'll see you again next Friday  for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye. 

The next step is to download my free ebook, Five  Steps to Becoming a Confident English Speaker.  

You'll learn what you need to do  to speak confidently and fluently.  

Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel  for more free lessons. Thanks so much. Bye.