Meaning & use
board up
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Meanings
verbtransitive or intransitive
To cover a window, door, or opening with wooden boards, usually to protect it or stop people from entering.
Grammar: Takes an object: board up the windows. The object can also go between the verb and up: board the windows up.
Patterns
- board up something
- board something up
- board up a window/door/building
People along the coast boarded up their windows before the hurricane arrived.
The shop was boarded up for months after the fire.
They boarded the empty house up so nobody could get inside.
verbtransitive or intransitive
To close a business or building permanently and cover its openings with boards.
Grammar: Often used in the passive: the store was boarded up. Can also be intransitive: the restaurant boarded up last year.
Patterns
- board up a shop/business
- be boarded up
After losing customers, the family boarded up the restaurant and moved away.
Several stores on the main street have been boarded up since the factory closed.
Word forms
| third person singular | boards up |
|---|---|
| past tense | boarded up |
| past participle | boarded up |
| -ing form | boarding up |
Common combinations
- board up windows
- We boarded up the windows before the storm hit.
- board up a house
- They boarded up the old house to keep squatters out.
- be boarded up
- The café has been boarded up since last winter.
- board up for the storm
- Everyone was boarding up for the storm.
- board up tight
- Make sure you board everything up tight before you leave.
Synonyms and how they differ
- cover up
- Cover up is more general and can mean hiding something; board up specifically uses boards to block an opening.
- secure
- Secure means making something safe from entry, often with locks or bars; board up is the wooden-board method.
Opposites
Word family
- boarded-up adjective
- covered with wooden boards, as of a window or building
- boarding noun
- boards used together, especially for covering openings or as a building material
Commonly confused: board up or border? board up or aboard?
board up vs border
Border means the edge or boundary of something, or to be next to it. It sounds similar but has nothing to do with covering windows with boards.
board up vs aboard
Aboard means on or onto a ship, train, or plane. It sounds close to 'a board' but is a different word entirely.
Practice
The shop owners decided to ___ before the typhoon arrived.
Choose one answer.
'Board up' is the phrasal verb meaning to cover windows or doors with boards. 'Board on' and 'board in' are not used this way, and 'board over' would suggest covering something completely with boards rather than protecting an opening.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “board up”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.