to scoop up
47
2.8
- phrasal verb
- /skuːp ʌp/
:
recoger
- She quickly scooped up the fallen leaves into a bag.
Jets have a scoop where they scoop up oxygen from the air.
- Jets have a scoop where they scoop up oxygen from the air.
- Scientist reaches down, scoops up some dirt, and God says, get your own dirt.
- Well, my dad tried to scoop that up, but it got away from it.
- How do beekeepers just scoop up the bees?
- One of them is that you go there, scoop up some material and bring it back.
- Edison as a boy sees what's happening, rushes, scoops the child up, barely escapes the train.
- I didn't have enough icing for these two, so I could just scoop this up off the floor.
- Just come by with a butterfly net and scoop them up.
- So my mother hears the shots and she runs out of the house and scoops me up.
- So you can actually take a little piece of the mint, put it on the little chocolate bite, scoop it up good.
Examples
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Let's scoop up his telegrams, all his private communications for this investigation.
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He scooped up the toys.
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One of them is that you go there, scoop up some material and bring it back.
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People just come along and scoop them up.
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And I scooped it up as carefully as I could.
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OK, so let's scoop up a little bowl here.
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I just want to scoop them up and hug them all.
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And the ball rolls free, so I scooped it up.
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With Angelo out of the way, he can scoop up all of the shares.
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Looking straight at Julian, I scooped them all up and placed them in a pile on the counter.
Fiction book (1993)
Synonyms
834
1.0
To lift something or someone from the ground with your hands
127
1.9
To lift something using a deep curved tool or your hand
56
2.0
To lift something up, often with a spoon or tool
43
2.1
Bring things together by picking them up with your hands
24
4.6
To grab something quickly, often before someone else
5
2.7
To take something out by picking it up, often carefully or with a tool
3
4.5
To lift something heavy with a lot of effort
1
4.2
Pick something up quickly by moving down fast
How Fast
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to lift or pick up quickly' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'scoop' (to lift or remove using a scoop) with 'up' (indicating upward movement or completion). This verb+particle construction follows common English compositional patterns and is easily inferable by a B1 learner who knows the constituent words.
Etymology
The phrasal verb scoop up comes from the simple image of using a scoop or a cupped hand to lift things quickly up in one curved motion. That's why scoop up now means 'to pick up quickly'.