to chirk up
- phrasal verb
- /tʃɜːk ʌp/
- Archaic
- He finally chirked up once his friends arrived at the party.
Examples
-
Let’s put on some music to help the kids chirk up a bit.
-
She always knows how to chirk up her friends.
-
It took her a while to chirk up after hearing the good news.
-
You should chirk up!
-
Listening to her favorite song made her chirk up and smile.
-
He tried to chirk up his brother after he got bad news.
-
The surprise party was meant to chirk up everyone’s mood.
Synonyms
248
1.0
To make someone feel happier
236
1.4
To feel happier after being sad or to make someone feel happier
198
3.0
To get better or stronger
125
3.4
To make people or a situation feel more cheerful
111
4.1
To become or make someone feel more cheerful and relaxed
71
2.7
To make a place or thing look more cheerful by adding color
64
3.2
To make someone feel happier and more hopeful
55
3.7
Become lively and cheerful because someone is there
31
3.1
Become more lively and cheerful after feeling tired or sad
25
6.3
To become or make someone more cheerful and confident
22
3.7
To make someone feel happier and more hopeful
22
2.7
Make a room or person more cheerful
19
3.9
To make or become more active and interesting
17
3.9
To make someone feel happier when they are sad
15
7.0
Make someone feel happier and full of energy
6
3.4
Help someone feel happier
6
4.9
To make someone or something more lively
3
4.1
Make someone or something more lively and interesting
1
5.3
To make someone feel more cheerful and confident
1
8.2
To try to make someone feel happier when they are sad
1
8.1
To make something more lively or exciting
To make someone feel happier or more cheerful
To make someone feel happier
Antonyms
How Cheerful
17
3.9
- Informal
236
1.4
- Archaic
- Informal
31
3.1
- Informal
22
2.7
Surface Forms
Morphology
chirk + up
The particle 'up' contributes a clear sense of increase or improvement, and if a learner already knew 'chirk' as 'be/become cheerful' the combined meaning would be immediately transparent. However, 'chirk' is dialectal/rare and is not listed in the provided dictionary entry, so most B1 learners would not know the base verb and the form is not fully predictable from more common vocabulary. Because the verb+up pattern gives a partial clue but the key lexical item is obscure, this is best classified as semi-transparent.
Etymology
Chirk up may come from the cheerful sound of birds: chirk is like a small happy call and up shows moving to a better feeling. Imagine a bird beginning to sing and making people smile, so to chirk up came to mean 'to become or make someone more cheerful'.