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to wise

to wise

51 6.7
To learn the true facts about a situation
  • phrasal verb
  • /waɪz/
  • Informal
: enterarse (de)
  • After a few tough experiences, she finally wised up and learned how to manage her money better.

Examples

  • I'd hope that Chamber members would wise up and recognize that he is not good for their business.

    Blog text (25)
  • The Republicans better wise up and grow a spine, or remove themselves from their political office.

    Blog text (8)
  • When are you gonna wise up?

  • You need to wise up and get a good crew chief and a good team.

  • I wish the public at large would wise up, but I do not expect that.

    Blog text (15)
  • When are the people finally going to wise up and vote for real change for a change?

    Blog text (1)
  • If we're lucky, he'll wise up before the wedding.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • We Americans need to wise up and vote all these people out.

    Blog text (25)
  • Shoot, maybe one of these days, you'll wise up and come work for us.

  • I knew you'd wise up, sunshine.

Synonyms

to wise up
vsto wise
  • Informal
23 7.1

To learn the true facts after not knowing them

is the general term usually used as the phrasal verb form
to get wise
vsto wise
13 7.0

To understand someone tricked you and become more careful

focuses more on general awareness rather than on earlier deception

How Aware

to wise
  • Informal
51 6.7
to realize
  • US
∞ 1.1
to learn
∞ 1.0
to find out
∞ 2.1
to notice
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

wise infinitive
wised past
wised past participle
wising present participle
wises third person singular

Etymology

Wise as a verb, seen in wise up, comes from the idea of becoming 'knowing'. So to wise up is to become aware or to learn the truth.