to get one's hopes up
34
5.6
- phrasal verb
- Informal
:
ilusionarse
- Now I just expect the worst and try not to get my hopes up.
- want to get your hopes up
- get your hopes up too
- try not to get your hopes up
Examples
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I'm not getting my hopes up.
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You know, I just don't want to get our hopes up too high.
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I let him get his hopes up a little.
Fiction book (1999) -
I'm not gonna get my hopes up.
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I don't want you to get your hopes up.
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So don't get your hopes up.
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Don't get your hopes up.
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I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up.
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Don't get your hopes up too high, but if anyone's going to be in danger, it'll be you.
Fiction book (1991) -
Make sure to keep your expectations realistic; otherwise, you might get your hopes up for nothing.
Synonyms
112
1.0
To feel very eager and happy about something
To make someone feel more cheerful and confident
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase literally combines the idea of increasing ('get' + 'up') with 'one's hopes', so a learner who knows the words could plausibly infer it means to raise or increase one's expectations. However, the cautionary/idiomatic nuance (that the optimism may be unjustified) and the fixed phrasing make the meaning a metaphorical extension rather than fully compositional, so it is only partially predictable.
Etymology
The phrase get one's hopes up may come from the image of putting your hopes up on a high shelf where they can easily fall. That's why it means becoming excited or hopeful about something that might not happen.