"size up" meaning in English

See size up in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-size up.ogg Forms: sizes up [present, singular, third-person], sizing up [participle, present], sized up [participle, past], sized up [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*|head=size up}} size up (third-person singular simple present sizes up, present participle sizing up, simple past and past participle sized up)
  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To evaluate; to estimate or anticipate the magnitude, difficulty, or strength of something. Tags: idiomatic, transitive
    Sense id: en-size_up-en-verb-KVyu8pAI
  2. (intransitive) To wear a larger size of clothing. Tags: intransitive Categories (topical): Clothing Related terms: weigh up
    Sense id: en-size_up-en-verb-FAsiKlTE Disambiguation of Clothing: 0 100 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English phrasal verbs formed with "up", Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 36 64 Disambiguation of English phrasal verbs formed with "up": 24 76 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 25 75 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 15 85

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "sizes up",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "sizing up",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "sized up",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "sized up",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "head": "size up"
      },
      "expansion": "size up (third-person singular simple present sizes up, present participle sizing up, simple past and past participle sized up)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "It's a good idea for boxers to size up their opponents before their matches."
        },
        {
          "text": "Before we can begin to size up the problem, we'll need more information."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2017 July 16, Brandon Nowalk, “Chickens and dragons come home to roost on Game Of Thrones (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club:",
          "text": "She approaches like she’s sizing them up. Five boys. Unarmed. A pile of swords over there. Ed Sheeran is there, but that’s not even the surprise.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "text": "The Century\nWe had to size up our fellow legislators."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To evaluate; to estimate or anticipate the magnitude, difficulty, or strength of something."
      ],
      "id": "en-size_up-en-verb-KVyu8pAI",
      "links": [
        [
          "evaluate",
          "evaluate"
        ],
        [
          "estimate",
          "estimate"
        ],
        [
          "anticipate",
          "anticipate"
        ],
        [
          "magnitude",
          "magnitude"
        ],
        [
          "difficulty",
          "difficulty"
        ],
        [
          "strength",
          "strength"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, transitive) To evaluate; to estimate or anticipate the magnitude, difficulty, or strength of something."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "36 64",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "24 76",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English phrasal verbs formed with \"up\"",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "25 75",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "15 85",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "0 100",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Clothing",
          "orig": "en:Clothing",
          "parents": [
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "This shirt runs tight, so you should size up."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To wear a larger size of clothing."
      ],
      "id": "en-size_up-en-verb-FAsiKlTE",
      "links": [
        [
          "wear",
          "wear"
        ],
        [
          "size",
          "size"
        ],
        [
          "clothing",
          "clothing"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) To wear a larger size of clothing."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "36 64",
          "word": "weigh up"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-size up.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/6b/En-au-size_up.ogg/En-au-size_up.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/En-au-size_up.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "size up"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English phrasal verbs",
    "English phrasal verbs formed with \"up\"",
    "English terms with redundant head parameter",
    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "en:Clothing"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "sizes up",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "sizing up",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "sized up",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "sized up",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "head": "size up"
      },
      "expansion": "size up (third-person singular simple present sizes up, present participle sizing up, simple past and past participle sized up)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "weigh up"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "It's a good idea for boxers to size up their opponents before their matches."
        },
        {
          "text": "Before we can begin to size up the problem, we'll need more information."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2017 July 16, Brandon Nowalk, “Chickens and dragons come home to roost on Game Of Thrones (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club:",
          "text": "She approaches like she’s sizing them up. Five boys. Unarmed. A pile of swords over there. Ed Sheeran is there, but that’s not even the surprise.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "text": "The Century\nWe had to size up our fellow legislators."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To evaluate; to estimate or anticipate the magnitude, difficulty, or strength of something."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "evaluate",
          "evaluate"
        ],
        [
          "estimate",
          "estimate"
        ],
        [
          "anticipate",
          "anticipate"
        ],
        [
          "magnitude",
          "magnitude"
        ],
        [
          "difficulty",
          "difficulty"
        ],
        [
          "strength",
          "strength"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, transitive) To evaluate; to estimate or anticipate the magnitude, difficulty, or strength of something."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English intransitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "This shirt runs tight, so you should size up."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To wear a larger size of clothing."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "wear",
          "wear"
        ],
        [
          "size",
          "size"
        ],
        [
          "clothing",
          "clothing"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) To wear a larger size of clothing."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-size up.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/6b/En-au-size_up.ogg/En-au-size_up.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/En-au-size_up.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "size up"
}

Download raw JSONL data for size up meaning in English (2.5kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-04-05 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-04-03 using wiktextract (8c1bb29 and fb63907). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.