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💵 To provide money 🥊 To resist 🏗️ To build 📢 To display 🛏️ To give shelter 🏷️ To offer for sale 🗳️ To nominate 🍑 To preserve food
to put up

to put up

75 3.4
Offer strong resistance, for example by fighting
  • phrasal verb
  • /pʊt ʌp/
translation icon : oponer resistencia
  • "The police said she put up a brave fight."
  • put up a fight
  • put up strong resistance

Takes a high level of ego to put up a fight metaphorically in terms of that's my pump, right?

Examples

  • And there was evidence that the old soul had put up resistance.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Larry caught a small bluefish that really put up a fight.

    Academic text (1997)

  • Come out, and put up your hands!

    Bulldog Drummond (1929)

  • Kid put up a fight.

    Xtinction: Predator X (2010)

  • You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Find something to believe in and put up a fight to make a wrong right.

    Blog text (1)

  • Maggie, you put up a terrific fight.

    City of Angels (1998)

  • They put up such a fight.

    Rise of the Guardians (2012)

  • I tell you, he might have lived if he'd put up a fight.

    Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)

  • The team knew they had to put up a fight if they wanted to win the championship.

Synonyms

to offer
vsto put up
  • Formal
384 2.5

Give something to show respect in a religious ceremony

is less formal and focuses on active resistance rather than formal expression
to provide
vsto put up
121 2.2

Try to stop something by fighting or resisting it

is broader, meaning to present resistance without only replying
to stand up against
vsto put up
22 3.7

To resist a person or rule that treats people unfairly

is general action to present resistance not limited to moral causes
to put up an argument
vsto put up
3.7

To give reasons to support or oppose an idea

is to present resistance more widely than just spoken disagreement

Antonyms

to yield
81 4.3

To stop resisting under pressure or force

surrender
77 4.2

Giving up after defeat, for example when an army stops fighting

How Strong

to fight back
188 3.3
to put up
75 3.4
to resist
311 2.2
to yield
81 4.3

Surface Forms

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

Morphology

put + up

The verbs 'put' (place) and particle 'up' (away/upward) give a loose, compositional sense of placing something away, which can suggest storing or keeping. However, the specific meaning 'preserve food in a can/tin' is a specialized, conventionalized extension (and somewhat dialectal) that is not fully predictable from the parts, so it is only partially transparent to learners.

Etymology

Put up (as in 'put up a fight') comes from the image of raising a defence, like putting up a fence or a shield against an attacker. So 'put up' a fight means to offer strong resistance.