to stir up drama
- phrasal verb
- Informal
:
crear drama
- He often tries to stir up drama at work to gain attention from his colleagues.
Examples
-
She likes to stir up drama by spreading rumors about her friends.
-
This guy is just trying to put Romney in a bad light and stir up drama on his own campaign staff.
Blog text (21) -
Don't stir up drama during the meeting; let's focus on finding a solution.
Synonyms
165
4.8
To start a fight or argument by annoying someone
144
3.6
Annoy someone again and again to make them react
131
3.7
To make someone feel a strong emotion
48
4.8
To make people feel strong emotions like anger or fear
36
6.9
To cause something bad to start
20
5.3
Do or say something that causes trouble and upsets other people
15
7.9
Behave loudly and angrily to cause trouble
13
7.6
To cause people to argue or become divided on purpose
8
8.0
To cause trouble by saying things to make people argue
8
6.8
Make someone angry or annoyed on purpose by teasing them
8
7.2
To make an argument or feeling worse by encouraging it
7
4.1
To make a place or situation very messy and confused
6
4.0
Make people feel excited or upset and attract attention
5
5.3
To cause fights or problems between people on purpose
1
7.0
To cause many people to show strong public anger or criticism
1
7.4
Make people more angry and cause conflict between groups
1
9.9
To say or do things to make others angry and start fights
1
7.7
To make many people feel angry or shocked about something
1
5.4
Cause strong arguments about a topic, often on public issues
1
7.3
Make a bad situation worse by what you say or do
To say or do things that cause arguments and make people angry
To make people argue or fight
To cause disagreement between people or groups
To say or do something that causes strong reactions and confusion among people
To cause a lot of trouble and anger among people
To cause a strong public argument that divides people
Antonyms
How Dramatic
- Literature
1
7.4
36
6.9
- Informal
- Informal
45
4.9
22
3.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and compositionally derived from the parts: 'stir up' (to provoke or increase feelings) combined with 'drama' (an emotionally charged conflict) yields 'to provoke or create emotional conflict.' This verb+particle + noun construction follows regular English composition patterns and has close parallels in many languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents should be able to infer the meaning.
Etymology
The phrase stir up drama comes from the image of someone using a spoon to stir up a calm pot or pond, making the water cloudy and noisy. So, stir up drama means 'to cause trouble or start strong feelings and conflict on purpose'.