shape up or ship out
1
8.1
- idiom
- Informal
:
mejorar o irse
- If the team doesn't improve its performance, they will be told to shape up or ship out.
Examples
-
The manager warned his employees that it was time to shape up or ship out before the quarterly review.
-
And now, young man, either shape up or ship out.
-
After several warnings, the coach finally said, "It's time to shape up or ship out!"
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The expression pairs two phrasal verbs joined by 'or'—'shape up' (improve one's behavior/performance) versus 'ship out' (be sent away/leave)—so a learner who knows those constituent senses and the coordinating 'or' can plausibly infer the general meaning. However, the specific phrasal-verb senses are somewhat idiomatic and conventionalized (especially 'ship out' in the sense of being forced to leave), so the overall interpretation is not fully predictable from the literal constituents without prior exposure.
Etymology
Shape up or ship out may come from old sailors. The idea is simple: you must shape up, get in order and behave better, or ship out, be put on a boat and sent away, so the phrase now means 'improve' or 'leave'.