to measure up
39
3.7
- phrasal verb
- /ˈmɛʒər ʌp/
- Informal
:
dar la talla
- The old-age lobby has not measured up when it comes to issues facing older women.
- measure up to standards
- fail to measure up
- capable of measuring up
Instead, if someone doesn't measure up for you, send a blessing of love their way.
- Instead, if someone doesn't measure up for you, send a blessing of love their way.
- They tell you that you don't measure up.
- They needn't compete quite so hard with their rivals when they know you'll buy regardless of how their product measures up.
- Children who don't measure up on whatever parameter the narcissistic parent wants are often scapegoated.
- And I saw that in a, in a lot of my friends who grew up in circumstances similar to that, they were afraid to try for fear of, of not measuring up.
- When you start asking questions like what's wrong with me, your subconscious mind goes to work and it starts feeding you all the ways in which you might not measure up.
- With that said, even though the interior materials in my opinion don't quite measure up to some trucks, the ride quality is just fantastic.
- And how does that measure up to, you know, the idea that if you have a platform, you have a responsibility to kind of speak your truth, right?
Examples
-
I could never measure up.
-
She worked hard to measure up to her family's standards for academic success.
-
How do you measure up to that?
-
Well, I hope I measure up.
-
But I might not measure up to your father's idea of things.
-
We do not think it measured up to our standards.
Academic text (1996) -
The ultimate test of our foreign policy is how well our actions measure up to our ideals.
Academic text (1998) -
Another reason is society's failure to measure up to artists' expectations.
Academic text (1995) -
We place high expectations on it and are disappointed when it doesn't measure up.
Academic text (2014) -
Joe feels like he can't measure up and thinks he's dumb.
Academic text (1992)
Synonyms
264
3.0
To have or give the skills and conditions needed to join
224
3.5
To meet what people expect of you
17
3.8
To be good enough to meet a standard or expectation
11
6.6
To be seen as good enough after a check
8
4.1
To reach the level needed to succeed
8
3.7
To reach the level needed
5
4.1
Be as good as people expect
Antonyms
How Well
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to be good enough' is partly inferable from 'measure' (a standard/assess) combined with the particle 'up' which conveys reaching a level, so learners can plausibly deduce a sense of meeting a benchmark. However, as a phrasal verb the specific idiomatic sense 'to meet expectations' is not fully predictable from the parts and often requires exposure, so it is only partially transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Measure up may come from the simple image of measuring something against a mark to see if it reaches up to the line. So, when something 'measures up' it reaches the needed mark and means 'to be good enough' or 'to meet a standard'.