by Liz Walter
My last post was about phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs connected to sadness and happiness. This post will look at some other emotions.
Let’s start with anger. If someone suddenly becomes angry, we can say that they flare up. Blow up is similar and often describes an even angrier outburst. We use the preposition at if that anger is directed at a particular person:
He flared up when Joel suggested he was to blame.
She blew up at photographers who followed her to her home.
We can also say that someone flies into a rage:
When he was told he couldn’t come in, he flew into a rage and attacked the doorman.
If something or someone makes you angry, you can say that they get to you. In UK but not US English, we also say that something or someone winds us up. These are both informal expressions:
I know he’s annoying, but don’t let him get to you.
It really winds me up when people spell my name wrong.
There are also several phrasal verbs connected with feeling scared or nervous. These feelings can stop us doing things. If you clam up, you can’t speak, and if you freeze up, you can’t speak or move:
When it was my turn to speak, I just clammed up with nerves.
I couldn’t fight back – I just froze up.
You might also hang back (not move forward or not do something) because you feel shy or nervous:
The others ran into the sea but Mia hung back.
If you are too scared to do something you had planned to do, you wimp out or (in UK English) bottle out.
He was going to come on the roller coaster, but he bottled out at the last minute.
I wimped out of doing the radio interview.
The phrasal verb chicken out has a similar meaning, but it is usually disapproving:
I can’t believe you chickened out on riding the roller coaster! (US)
I chickened out of singing a solo at the concert. (UK)
An informal phrasal verb for talking about something that makes you feel disgusted is gross out. This was originally an American term, but it is now common in the UK too:
I can’t eat oysters. They gross me out!
On a more positive note, you might bubble over with excitement or enthusiasm, and if you jump at an opportunity, you accept it enthusiastically:
They were bubbling over with excitement about their new business.
I would jump at the chance to work in Japan.
Next month, I will finish this mini-series on emotions with a selection of general phrasal and prepositional words for talking in a more general way about feelings.
Thank you. I have been continuously reading your post since a while. I am grateful to you for enriching my vocabulary, especially on phrasal verbs. May almighty grant you sound health and mind always.
Thank you very much. I’m glad you find them useful.
Oky can I have some more information
Good morning I would like to be a part of aleaners it’s sound fantastic
Thank youuuuuuu! It’s a brilliant job, amazing explanation with very practical examples. Stay blessed.
Thanks YouTube very much Walter.
Happy to learn new things
I am bubbled over knowing new vocabulary
Great to know, thanks
Thank u very much
Thanks YouTube very much Walter.
Thanku for the sharing knowledge
I tried to talk about a situation (stage fright) using ‘chicken out’ and ‘wimp out,’ but it seems no one uses these phrases to describe the situation on the Internet.
“He chickened out on going on stage last night.”
“He wimped out on going on stage last night.”
What is you opinion on these two sentences?
Thank you.
Both of those sound perfectly fine to me. Just to note, we use ‘of’ not ‘on’ after chicken/wimp out.
“I can’t believe you chickened out on riding the roller coaster!”
The example sentence in the article used ON after chicken out.
Do you mean ‘bottle/wimp out of’ and ‘chicken out on?’
Thank you for your reply.
thank you, can I get part 1, I missed it.
You can find it here: https://dictionaryblog.cambridge.org/2019/09/18/weighed-down-or-perking-up-phrasal-verbs-to-express-emotions-part-1/
Hope you enjoy it!
I love it
Thank you very much for helping us to understand new words in very easy manner and with simple examples.
Thank you so much for that useful information, and I hope you will write about collective nouns.
Thanks again
Liz, that you very much for your generosity in sharing knowledge with us as someone has already said.
Thank you for these idioms in particular.
Irini.
This post is simply amazing! Such a well selected set of words 🙂 Thank you!
Thank you very much empowering us on English.If we can find your earlier posts that would be fantastic.
If you tap the author’s name at the top of the post, you can see all the posts by that author. If you want more on the same topic (idioms, vocabulary, etc.) tap the category names at the top of the post.
Hope this helps.
Thank you, Liz ! While reading your articles I usually compare English and Russian expressions. It is interesting that I can find so much in common in emotional expression of English and Russian!
Thank you very much for this article. More specifically, I would add that “get to” and “wind sb up” are often used to express irritation or annoyance.
It’s a spectacular post .Thank you very much .
Thanks, everyone, for your lovely comments. It’s very interesting to hear how English sometimes overlaps with other languages!