What is a Phrasal Verb?
A phrasal verb consists of a verb and a preposition or adverb that modifies or changes the meaning; ‘give up’ is a phrasal verb that means ‘stop doing’ something, which is very different from ‘give’. The word or words that modify a verb in this manner can also go under the name particle.
Phrasal verbs are idiomatic expressions, combining verbs and prepositions to make new verbs whose meaning is often not obvious from the dictionary definitions of the individual words. They are widely used in both written and spoken English, and new ones are formed all the time as they are a flexible way of creating new terms.
UsingEnglish.com presents A reference of 2,993 current English Phrasal Verbs (also called multi-word verbs) with definitions and examples.
You can Search the dictionary, Browse it or Take a Phrasal Verb Quiz.
There is also an interesting Quiz on Prepositions and Particles used to make up Phrasal Verbs.
UsingEnglish.com is always updating it database. You can check the latest entries here!
Phrasal Verbs are often used in Idiomatic Expressions. An idiom is a phrase where the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words, which can make idioms hard for ESL students and learners to understand. Here, UsingEnglish.com provides a dictionary of 3,540 English idiomatic expressions with definitions.
Many idioms have been classified into topic groups, which you can browse by using categories.
- Animals (335)
- Body and bodily functions (440)
- Buildings & construction (63)
- Character & appearance (32)
- Children and babies (21)
- Clothes (95)
- Colours (73)
- Death (45)
- Drinking and pubs (15)
- Drugs (8)
- Food (187)
- Furniture and household fittings (43)
- Gambling (17)
- Health & Medicine (7)
- Law (19)
- Men & women (42)
- Money (101)
- Music (27)
- Nationality or ethnicity (27)
- Nature (63)
- Numbers (41)
- Person’s name (47)
- Place name (20)
- Plants & Flowers (63)
- Police & Crime (22)
- Politics (16)
- Profession or work (32)
- Religion (63)
- Sex and sexuality (14)
- Sport (85)
- Technology & science (17)
- Time (77)
- Transport & Travel (43)
- War and conflict (56)
- Weather (51)
Idioms By Country
- American English (154)
- Australian English (12)
- British English (177)
- Canadian English (1)
- Indian English (3)
- Irish English (3)
- New Zealand English (2)
- Scottish English (4)
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