to sober up
33
4.6
- phrasal verb
- /ˈsoʊbər ʌp/
:
ponerse sobrio
- When you sober up, I may unlock the door.
- get sober up
- go sober up
- try to sober up
But just know, once you've sobered up, come back, we'll hang out.
- But just know, once you've sobered up, come back, we'll hang out.
- So this morning, I sobered up and everybody's still talking about Russia.
- So I hope I sober up quick because I don't know if I could handle that.
- So there was so much going on that a, when I sobered up, I was like, uh oh.
- It's like the fear either upon sobering up or having to go home alone at the end of the night.
- Makes this like rambling anti anti-Semitic ramble and then he erases it when he sobers up.
- And whenever my mom would, would sober up from one of her binges, she would swear that she was never going to drink again.
- It turns out that my lifestyle before sobering up dulled a lot of my abilities, so I found success pretty instantaneously.
- But yes, I, I went, I kept waiting for Fernando to sober up so we could do business and went to see his wife and she, she's a lovely lady.
- And I was in there and I was obviously like, I'm sobering up and I'm in this cell and I'm thinking, what the fuck are you doing, mate?
- But what I would say is that this is me doing my best to be a scientist because I, when I get home, I know that I need and McDonald's to sober up.
Examples
-
You've got to sober up and get back to the field.
-
In the morning, Jacob sobered up and remembered the events of the night before.
Blog text (27) -
Go get under the shower and sober up.
-
Oh, I gotta sober up.
-
Maybe he'll sober up if he gets some fresh air.
Fiction book (1999) -
Then let's just walk back out there, sober up, and go home.
-
I'm waiting for him to sober up.
-
Let's get you sobered up.
-
By then, they must have sobered up because they did look a little crestfallen and ashamed of themselves.
Fiction book (1993) -
After a few hours, he was finally able to sober up and think clearly again.
Synonyms
50
4.1
To stop being drunk or make someone more serious
How Sober
Surface Forms
Morphology
The core meaning is compositionally built from 'sober' (becoming not intoxicated or more serious) plus the particle 'up' which signals a change of state, so learners who know the words can plausibly infer a sense of becoming sober. However, the extended, metaphorical use 'become more realistic/sensible' is a pragmatic extension that is not fully predictable from the parts alone, so it should be judged only partially transparent to B1 learners.
Etymology
Sober up comes from a simple image: a drunk person who lies down and then sits or stands up again as their head clears. That's why sober up means 'to become less drunk'.