"step up to the plate" meaning in English

See step up to the plate in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-step up to the plate.ogg [Australia] Forms: steps up to the plate [present, singular, third-person], stepping up to the plate [participle, present], stepped up to the plate [participle, past], stepped up to the plate [past]
Etymology: An allusion to taking one's turn at bat in baseball. Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} step up to the plate (third-person singular simple present steps up to the plate, present participle stepping up to the plate, simple past and past participle stepped up to the plate)
  1. (chiefly US, idiomatic) To initiate action; to assume or take a responsibility. Tags: US, idiomatic Categories (topical): Baseball Synonyms: volunteer, offer Derived forms: step up

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for step up to the plate meaning in English (3.5kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "An allusion to taking one's turn at bat in baseball.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "steps up to the plate",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "stepping up to the plate",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "stepped up to the plate",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "stepped up to the plate",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "step up to the plate (third-person singular simple present steps up to the plate, present participle stepping up to the plate, simple past and past participle stepped up to the plate)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with topic categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Baseball",
          "orig": "en:Baseball",
          "parents": [
            "Ball games",
            "Sports",
            "Human activity",
            "Human behaviour",
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "word": "step up"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2008 June 12, Beth Stackpole, “The IT pro's vacation planner”, in Computerworld, retrieved 2020-06-17",
          "text": "Surround yourself with good people who can reliably step up to the plate and solve problems when they occur.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013, Janice Gow Pettey, Nonprofit Fundraising Strategy, John Wiley & Sons, page 207",
          "text": "When you introduce a new and very important issue, you are likely to inspire some of those who have been sitting back to step up to the plate and take on the new role of promoting ethical practice.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Henry Evans, Colm Foster, Step Up, John Wiley & Sons, page 78",
          "text": "However, every time you fail to do something, you make it harder to step up to the plate for the next challenge. Think of this ability and willingness to step up as a competency or skill that you can develop over time.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2021 January 27, Paul Clifton, “What is the future of the RDG?”, in RAIL, issue 923, page 44",
          "text": "\"There is something in railway people that has encouraged them to step up to the plate,\" says Starr.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To initiate action; to assume or take a responsibility."
      ],
      "id": "en-step_up_to_the_plate-en-verb-4LLUMrt5",
      "links": [
        [
          "initiate",
          "initiate"
        ],
        [
          "action",
          "action"
        ],
        [
          "take a responsibility",
          "take responsibility"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly US, idiomatic) To initiate action; to assume or take a responsibility."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "volunteer"
        },
        {
          "word": "offer"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-step up to the plate.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/7e/En-au-step_up_to_the_plate.ogg/En-au-step_up_to_the_plate.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/En-au-step_up_to_the_plate.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "step up to the plate"
}
{
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "step up"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "An allusion to taking one's turn at bat in baseball.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "steps up to the plate",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "stepping up to the plate",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "stepped up to the plate",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "stepped up to the plate",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "step up to the plate (third-person singular simple present steps up to the plate, present participle stepping up to the plate, simple past and past participle stepped up to the plate)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "en:Baseball"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2008 June 12, Beth Stackpole, “The IT pro's vacation planner”, in Computerworld, retrieved 2020-06-17",
          "text": "Surround yourself with good people who can reliably step up to the plate and solve problems when they occur.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013, Janice Gow Pettey, Nonprofit Fundraising Strategy, John Wiley & Sons, page 207",
          "text": "When you introduce a new and very important issue, you are likely to inspire some of those who have been sitting back to step up to the plate and take on the new role of promoting ethical practice.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Henry Evans, Colm Foster, Step Up, John Wiley & Sons, page 78",
          "text": "However, every time you fail to do something, you make it harder to step up to the plate for the next challenge. Think of this ability and willingness to step up as a competency or skill that you can develop over time.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2021 January 27, Paul Clifton, “What is the future of the RDG?”, in RAIL, issue 923, page 44",
          "text": "\"There is something in railway people that has encouraged them to step up to the plate,\" says Starr.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To initiate action; to assume or take a responsibility."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "initiate",
          "initiate"
        ],
        [
          "action",
          "action"
        ],
        [
          "take a responsibility",
          "take responsibility"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly US, idiomatic) To initiate action; to assume or take a responsibility."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "volunteer"
        },
        {
          "word": "offer"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-step up to the plate.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/7e/En-au-step_up_to_the_plate.ogg/En-au-step_up_to_the_plate.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/En-au-step_up_to_the_plate.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "step up to the plate"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-05 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). 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.