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Glite Dictionary
😠 To get upset 💪 To build up 📝 To develop
to work up

to work up

50 4.2
To gradually build up a feeling such as confidence or interest
  • phrasal verb
  • /wɜrk ʌp/
translation icon : desarrollar
  • - Dear miss Ross, I have finally worked up enough courage to write you.

But there was a special feeling that came from working up the courage to go over to someone.

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Examples

  • All this flying can really work up an appetite, but my buddy does not like this.

  • How do you film in this heat and not work up a major appetite?

  • It's hard to work up an interest in politics, given the way we live.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • But there was a special feeling that came from working up the courage to go over to someone.

    Ed Mylett

  • I really worked up an appetite.

    The First Time (1969)

  • It took me a while to work up the courage.

    High Fidelity (2000)

  • You must've worked up an appetite, so I'm going to make you eggs, OK?

    Flock of Dudes (2015)

  • We stand at the precipice, arms locked together like tandem skydivers, working up the courage to jump.

  • Connie chewed her lip and worked up her nerve to ask, "Where was Momma?"

    Fiction book (1997)

  • After a long meeting, she worked up the confidence to present her ideas to the team.

Synonyms

to build
vsto work up
∞ 1.3

To slowly make something stronger over time, like trust or skill

focuses specifically on inner feelings or appetite rather than broad social growth
to build up
vsto work up
207 3.0

Increase slowly over time

develops internal feelings or conditions gradually rather than general accumulation

Antonyms

to diminish
201 3.7

To become less in size, importance, or value

How Strong

to overwhelm
164 4.4
to intensify
110 4.0
to work up
50 4.2
to grow
∞ 1.0
to feel
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

work up infinitive
worked up past
worked up past participle
working up present participle
works up third person singular

Morphology

work + up

The sense of emotions building or intensifying is partly derivable from combining 'work' (to develop or produce gradually) with 'up' (to increase/intensify), so a learner could infer it involves feelings growing. However, the specific idiomatic use meaning 'become agitated/upset' is a conventionalized phrasal-verb sense and not fully predictable from the parts, so it would likely require prior exposure for a B1 learner.

Etymology

Work up shows work and up because you put effort in so a feeling or amount rises inside you, like slowly building courage or appetite, so it means 'to gradually develop'.