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to put on

to put on

83 3.6
To drive a vehicle so it gets more miles
  • phrasal verb
  • /pʊt ɑn/
translation icon : recorrer
  • I asked to speak with his manager, but they put me on hold and disconnected me.

Just yeah, put some real miles on those cars.

Examples

  • If you keep driving like this, you'll put on a lot of extra kilometers by the end of the trip.

  • " In one week, you put more miles on that car than I put on in a month.

    Fiction book (1996)
  • For the the big truck wheels I put on it to do the highway driving.

  • The palace quiets now that the walls are enclosed and the roof is put on.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • I need to put on some miles before I return the rental car.

  • After taking the scenic route, I realized I had put on over 100 miles on the odometer.

Synonyms

to drive around
vsto put on
65 2.3

To drive a car without a fixed destination to relax

is done to increase the recorded mileage on the vehicle

How Far

to rack up
  • Informal
54 3.6
to clock up
1 6.6
to put on
83 3.6
drive
372 1.0

Surface Forms

put on infinitive
put on past
put on past participle
putting on present participle
puts on third person singular

Morphology

put + on

The basic sense 'to dress oneself' is directly derivable from combining 'put' (place) with 'on' (onto the body) and would be clear to a B1 learner who knows both words. However, extended senses like 'put on a show' (to stage/present) or idiomatic uses (e.g. 'put on' meaning to pretend) involve metaphorical extension and phrasal-verb idiosyncrasy that are not fully predictable without exposure.

Etymology

The phrasal verb put on for adding miles comes from the idea of adding distance to a vehicle: when you drive you put miles on the car. That's why it means 'to add miles' to a vehicle.