Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🚗 To stop moving 🌱 To remove 🧍 To stand tall
to pull up

to pull up

50 3.0
To stand or sit up straight to look more confident
  • phrasal verb
  • /pʊl ʌp/
translation icon : erguirse
  • She decided to pull up her shoulders and walk into the room confidently.
  • pull yourself back up
  • pull up your chin
  • pull up your head

Feel the muscles in your chest, in your abdomen, firing, tensing as you're pulling yourself up.

Examples

  • When he heard the announcement, he quickly pulled up to attention.

  • So now is the time pull up your pants and get to work.

  • Let me pull my pants up.

    A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas (2011)

  • And pull your pants up.

    Madea's Big Happy Family (2011)

  • With one last effort, Brian manages to pull himself back up to his knees.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Too weak from fear to stand, he clutched at the banister and pulled himself up step by step.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Benoit returned to his cot and pulled the blanket up over himself.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • "Yes, indeedy," he said, pulling himself up with a hand on the porch pillar.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Wren hurried to Tiger Ty, who was already seated atop Spirit, and pulled herself up behind him.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Before the meeting starts, please pull up your chair so everyone can take their seats.

Synonyms

to straighten up
vsto pull up
15 1.6

Sit or stand so your back and shoulders are straight

focuses on appearing more dignified or confident not just posture correction
to draw up
vsto pull up
1 3.9

To straighten the body to stand taller

is aimed at appearing dignified or confident rather than showing authority

Antonyms

to slouch
22 4.6

To sit, stand, or walk with the shoulders and head bent forward in a lazy way

stoop
2 4.8

A forward bend of the upper body often from age or habit

How Upright

to stand
∞ 1.0
to pull up
50 3.0
to sit up
126 1.0
to slouch
22 4.6

Surface Forms

pull up infinitive
pulled up past
pulled up past participle
pulling up present participle
pulls up third person singular

Morphology

pull + up

The meaning 'to remove or extract something' is directly derivable from combining 'pull' (to exert force) with 'up' (indicating upward motion); the image of pulling something up out of the ground is literal and compositional. Although the phrasal verb has other senses (e.g., stopping a vehicle), the removal sense is transparent and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should understand it.

Etymology

Pull up comes from the picture of a person straightening their body, like they pull their shoulders up to stand taller and look more confident. That's why it means 'to stand straighter' or 'to look more confident'.