Meaning & use
man up
Last updated
Meaning
verbphrasal verbinformaldisapproving
To stop complaining or hesitating and face a difficult situation with courage; often said as an order.
Grammar: No object; usually used as an imperative or with have to or need to: you need to man up.
Patterns
- man up and do something
- tell someone to man up
Just man up and apologize to her; it will only get worse if you wait.
He knew he had to man up and tell his boss about the mistake.
Stop whining and man up; it's only a vaccination.
Word forms
| third person singular | mans up |
|---|---|
| past tense | manned up |
| past participle | manned up |
| -ing form | manning up |
Common combinations
- need to man up
- You need to man up and ask for the raise.
- time to man up
- It's time to man up and own your mistakes.
- tell someone to man up
- His coach told him to man up and keep playing.
- man up and apologize
- She wished he would man up and apologize.
Synonyms and how they differ
- toughen up
- Toughen up is gentler and does not tie bravery to gender, so it fits more situations.
- pull yourself together
- Pull yourself together is aimed at someone losing control of their emotions, while man up urges bold action.
- step up
- Step up is positive and means taking responsibility, without the harsh tone of man up.
- grow up
- Grow up criticizes childish behavior, whereas man up focuses on showing courage.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: man up or man the?
man up vs man the
Man a post or station means to staff it, as in man the phones. Man up is a separate phrasal verb about showing courage.
Practice
His friends told him to ___ and have the difficult talk with his landlord.
Choose one answer.
Man up means to face a hard situation bravely. The other phrases are not used with this meaning.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “man up”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.