to man up
- phrasal verb
- /mæn ʌp/
- Informal
- But Christie is eventually going to have to man up and say it out loud.
- just man up
- need to man up
- time to man up
I'm scared of not manning up, dude.
- I'm scared of not manning up, dude.
- You have a job here and you need to man up and do it.
- Put the mask on him, you know, Crack on, soldier on, man up.
- And so very quickly, I realized that when you say it's time to man up, it really is.
- Doctor feel it insulted him by telling him he needed to man up.
- And I was, it was interesting because I was like, man, I need to man up.
- You're that feeling of like you want to run and hide, stop, man up, face it, sit in it, do not allow yourself.
- But if you're from those scheme areas, it's if you're fighting or you're crying, it's toughen up, man up.
- You know, James, I think this comes down to the fact that all the time we have told boys to man up.
- There's a reason for this because their verse has been suppressed to say, oh, you got to be strong and man up, right?
- I do it for my own personal, you know, fears and younger thing about man, I've been here stuttering and so you got man up, man.
- And that's because the book is about manning up to your highest purpose and potential as a leader, both in life and in business, right?
Examples
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You have a job here and you need to man up and do it.
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I think it's fair to ask a man to "man up" and meet his obligations, even when doing so is unpleasant.
Blog text (19) -
Yeah, I mean, man up. And now look at me.
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So man up and live your values.
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Maybe you should man up, you know?
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So I want you to man up.
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You gotta man up, move on.
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You man up, you lead your squad.
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Time to man up.
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If you want to be promoted, you need to man up and take more responsibility on the team.
Synonyms
To defend yourself when someone treats you unfairly
Act with courage and responsibility when facing a hard situation
Face a hard situation bravely and take responsibility
Antonyms
How Brave
Surface Forms
Morphology
The general idea — adopting traits associated with being a "man" (strength, responsibility) combined with the particle "up" as an intensifier — can be partially inferred from the constituents, so learners might guess the expression encourages tougher or more responsible behaviour. However, the meaning is metaphorical, culturally gendered, and relies on verbing a noun and pragmatic nuance that is not fully predictable, so a B1 learner who only knows the words may not reliably derive the precise sense.
Etymology
Man up may come from the idea of stepping into the role of a man and literally standing up to face a problem, like someone rising to take charge. So it now means 'behave bravely' or 'take responsibility'.