Meaning & use
trip up
Last updated
Meanings
verbtransitive or intransitive
To make a mistake or cause someone to make a mistake, often by tricking them.
Grammar: Can be used with or without an object: He tripped up during the interview. / The question tripped me up.
Patterns
- trip up
- trip someone up
- trip up on something
The difficult question tripped up many students in the exam.
Be careful not to trip up when you give your presentation.
The lawyer tried to trip the witness up with a tricky question.
verbintransitive
To catch one's foot on something and almost fall.
Grammar: Often followed by 'on' or 'over': trip up on a step.
Patterns
- trip up on something
- trip up over something
She tripped up on the uneven pavement and dropped her bag.
He tripped up over a tree root while running in the park.
Word forms
| third person singular | trips up |
|---|---|
| past tense | tripped up |
| past participle | tripped up |
| -ing form | tripping up |
Common combinations
- trip up on
- He tripped up on the stairs.
- trip someone up
- The reporter tried to trip the politician up.
- easily tripped up
- Even experts can be easily tripped up by this question.
Synonyms and how they differ
- stumble
- Stumble means to almost fall, but it does not mean to make a mistake or trick someone.
- catch out
- Catch out means to discover someone's mistake or trick them, similar to trip up but often more deliberate.
Word family
- trip verb
- To catch your foot and fall, or to make a mistake.
Commonly confused: trip up or trip?
trip up vs trip
Trip can mean to fall or to travel, but trip up specifically means to make a mistake or cause one.
Practice
The interviewer asked a very tricky question to ______ the candidate.
Choose one answer.
Trip up means to cause someone to make a mistake. Trip on and trip over refer to physically catching your foot, and trip alone does not carry the idea of causing a mistake.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “trip up”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.