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Glite Dictionary
to dish up

to dish up

3 2.2
To serve food onto plates for people to eat
  • phrasal verb
  • /dɪʃ ʌp/
  • Informal
translation icon : servir
  • At the family gathering, we all helped to dish up the pasta from the large pot.
  • dish up food
  • dish up a meal
  • chefs dish up

Examples

  • Maybe when their dad, Frank, gets home he can dish up seconds.

    The Elephant in the Room (2025)

  • Mama's face was flushed, and her hair escaped its bun to curl in damp tendrils as she dished up the breakfast plates.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Mom dished up food for the three of us, the way she had when we were little.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • Mac is in the kitchen dishing up some ice cream.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • So they dish up onto the trays and they serve them.

  • I'll dish up the ice cream, Mr. Bannon.

    Hud (1963)

  • In the wet market itself, there's a cooked food center that dishes up excellent food.

    Blog text (17)

  • My sister pulled her leftover homemade chicken pot pie out of the refrigerator and dished up a plate for the boy.

    Blog text (16)

  • "Jada dished up the fried chicken and potato salad on paper plates, and they began eating.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Rabia was stationed at the stove, dishing up another fragrant meal—cabbage stuffed with rice and lamb.

    Fiction book (2002)

Synonyms

to serve
vsto dish up
869 1.0

To give food or drink to someone, usually during a meal

is about portioning and plating from a larger container rather than general offering
to dish
vsto dish up
38 2.5

To serve food to people

is about serving from a larger container onto plates or table
to serve up
vsto dish up
34 1.4

To give food or drink to people

focuses on serving from a shared container onto plates or at table
to spoon
vsto dish up
31 1.0

Use a small tool with a bowl and handle to move or eat food

refers to serving by portioning from a larger container, not by the tool used
to dish out
vsto dish up
  • Informal
28 3.4

To give out things to several people, often food or advice

is specifically about serving onto plates from a larger container, not any distribution
to plate
vsto dish up
  • Specialized
13 3.5

To arrange food on a dish so it looks attractive

focuses on moving food from a larger container for serving rather than styling
to ladle
vsto dish up
4 3.4

To put soup or stew into bowls using a large deep spoon

is about serving from larger containers onto plates not only transferring liquids
to bowl up
vsto dish up
5.6

To put food into a bowl to serve it

means plating from a larger container onto plates or table rather than bowl serving

How Served

to plate
  • Specialized
13 3.5
to serve
869 1.0
to dish up
  • Informal
3 2.2

Surface Forms

dish up infinitive
dished up past
dished up past participle
dishing up present participle
dishes up third person singular

Morphology

dish + up

The meaning 'to serve food onto plates' is directly derivable from combining 'dish' (to serve/out) with the particle 'up', which here signals distribution/completion. This compositional pattern (verb + up = serve/distribute) is a common, predictable phrasal-verb construction, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would readily infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

The phrasal verb dish up comes from the simple image of putting food on plates: people would scoop food into a dish and lift it up to the table to give to others. That's why dish up means 'to serve food onto plates'.