to size up
28
3.8
- phrasal verb
- /saɪz ʌp/
:
evaluar
- Before deciding whether to hire him, I need to size up his skills and experience.
- size up the situation
She'd go she like she sized me up, bro.
- She'd go she like she sized me up, bro.
- OK, so I'm not sizing you up.
- It's in the background of The Walking in and sizing yourself up.
- I think, I think girls think dudes size each other up.
- On the one hand, as he says in the film, he wanted to know what his life was like to get it to size, size up the man that murdered his sister.
- I race there, I get on that mat, I maybe settle in for five seconds after looking around and checking out like, OK, like how am I going to size up here?
- Which presupposes that there was a point in time where a man just sized you up and said I just want to sleep with her.
- Now I've been kind of sizing this motherfucker up.
Examples
-
l was a salesman and l can size up people's characters pretty good, and you have a lot of potential.
-
I sized you up the moment we met.
-
Just go out and size her up and make your own decision.
-
And, you know, she sized me up.
-
The incident commander, the crew leader gets out of the car, kind of sizes up the scene pretty quickly.
-
Here we meet, greet, and size up the competition.
-
The truth is, Norton wanted to size Andy up.
-
The beautiful women emerged unhurriedly to size us up as we passed by.
Fiction book (1999) -
Jacinta set her face into more composed lines while she sized him up.
Fiction book (1999) -
I can see some of you out there sizing up the competition, looking at 'em and thinking, "That's my arch enemy."
Synonyms
∞
1.0
Study something carefully to understand it or decide
670
2.4
To look at someone or something carefully to understand it
70
6.2
To look at something very carefully to check for mistakes
22
4.8
To carefully check what you have and how things are going
3
3.7
Move your eyes from head to toe to judge a person or thing
1
7.4
To look at a person or thing with interest
How Closely
Surface Forms
Morphology
size + up
The MWE meaning 'to form a judgment' is an extended use of 'size' (to measure) with the particle 'up' adding a sense of completion or focus, so there is a transparent clue to evaluation. However, the specific evaluative/assessing sense of the phrasal verb is a metaphorical extension and particle meanings vary, so a B1 learner who only knows the literal constituents may not reliably infer the exact sense without prior exposure.
Etymology
Size up: The phrasal verb size up comes from the simple image of looking someone from head to toe to see their size, with your eyes moving up and down to get the full picture. That's why it now means 'to judge or form an opinion'.