Can you believe the Penguin Macquarie Dictionary lists 63 different ways of using UP.
(thanks Barbara)
There is a word that has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is UP. It’s easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?
If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don’t give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.
At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?
To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.
We call UP our friends and we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver.
We warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.
We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.
People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.
To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.
We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.
We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!
One could go on and on, but I’ll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so.............
Time to shut UP.....!