work up
2 meanings
gradually build up something like courage, appetite, or enthusiasm
What does "work up" mean in this sense?
Examples
- She finally worked up the courage to ask for a promotion.
- I can't work up the energy to cook tonight — let's order pizza.
- After hiking for an hour, we'd worked up a real appetite.
How to use it
The most common pattern — the object (courage, appetite, energy, enthusiasm, etc.) is placed after 'up', usually with a determiner like 'the' or 'a'.
I'm trying to work up the courage to quit my job and travel for a year.
The separated form is strongly preferred in natural speech — the object sits between 'work' and 'up'.
We walked around the city all morning and really worked an appetite up by lunchtime.
Negative constructions are especially common with this verb, reflecting the effort required to generate the feeling.
She wanted to join the debate, but she just couldn't work up the nerve.
Infinitive constructions with effort verbs capture the gradual, deliberate nature of this phrasal verb.
He managed to work up enough enthusiasm to get through the presentation.
When the abstract noun has already been mentioned, a pronoun replaces it and must go between 'work' and 'up'.
I knew I needed more confidence for the interview, but I just couldn't work it up.
Common Collocations
Common Mistakes
'Work up' describes deliberately generating a feeling within yourself through effort. 'Get worked up' means to become anxiously upset or over-excited about something — it's reactive, not intentional. These are different meanings and should not be confused.
In natural English, 'work up' almost always separates — the object goes between 'work' and 'up'. Keeping the verb together is grammatically possible but sounds less natural, especially with short noun phrases.
Adding 'to' after 'up' followed by an activity creates a completely different meaning — 'work up to' means to gradually progress toward a goal, like increasing a skill or physical challenge. Without 'to', the focus is on generating an internal feeling.
Usage
This phrasal verb is neutral and common in everyday spoken English. It usually appears in negative or effortful contexts ('I can't work up the energy') and almost always separates, with the object placed between 'work' and 'up'.
make someone feel upset, angry, or excited
Sense 2: What does "work sb up" mean?
Examples
- Don't get worked up about the exam — you've studied hard and you'll be fine.
- She worked herself up into such a state that she couldn't sleep the night before the interview.
- He always gets worked up over small things that don't really matter.
How to use it
This is by far the most common construction — 'get worked up' functions almost like a fixed phrase, with 'about' or 'over' introducing the cause of the agitation.
Try not to get worked up about every negative comment you read online.
Used to describe the resulting emotional state rather than the process of becoming agitated — 'worked up' functions here as an adjective, similar to 'stressed' or 'upset'.
You could tell she was worked up before she even started speaking.
In active transitive use, a short object — especially a pronoun — sits between 'work' and 'up'; this is less common than the 'get worked up' pattern but still natural.
All that uncertainty worked him up more than the actual bad news did.
The reflexive form is especially common and captures the idea of someone making themselves anxious, often without any clear external cause.
Stop working yourself up — you don't even know what he's going to say yet.
When an external cause or person is the agent, 'get' can take an object before 'worked up', showing what or who caused the emotional state.
The last-minute changes to the schedule really got everyone worked up.
Common Collocations
Common Mistakes
Learners sometimes place the object after 'up' in an active sentence, or use 'work up' with a bare noun in a way that sounds unnatural. The emotional sense almost always appears as 'get worked up' or 'get someone worked up', not 'something worked up me'.
'Worked up' in this sense is an adjective describing an emotional state, not a past tense verb. It behaves like 'stressed' or 'excited', so you can say 'she was worked up' or 'he seemed worked up', treating it as a describing word.
In British English, 'wind someone up' often means to deliberately tease or provoke someone as a joke, which is different from 'work someone up', which focuses on genuine emotional agitation or anxiety. The two are not always interchangeable.
Usage
This phrasal verb is most commonly used as 'get worked up (about/over something)' in everyday spoken English in both British and American varieties. It is informal and rarely used in formal writing.
Frequently Asked Questions
What kinds of things can you 'work up'? Can it be used with any noun?
It's mostly used with internal states and physical sensations — things like courage, appetite, enthusiasm, energy, a sweat, the nerve, or motivation. These are all things you generate from within through effort. You wouldn't use 'work up' with concrete or external things (like savings or muscle), where 'build up' would be more natural.
Does 'work up' always involve a struggle? Can I use it when something comes easily?
While it's grammatically fine in positive, successful contexts ('she worked up the enthusiasm'), the phrase most naturally implies effort or difficulty. In real usage, it very often appears with negatives or effort verbs: 'I can't work up the energy', 'I struggled to work up any interest'. Using it in a context where the feeling came easily might sound slightly odd to a native speaker.
Can 'work up' be used in the passive, like 'the courage was worked up'?
No — the passive sounds very unnatural with this phrasal verb. Because 'work up' describes something you generate internally through your own effort, the active form is always preferred. Stick to constructions like 'I worked up the courage' rather than any passive version.
Is 'work up a sweat' the same kind of meaning?
'Work up a sweat' fits the same pattern — you're gradually producing a physical state through activity or effort. It's one of the most common and fixed collocations with this phrasal verb, so it's well worth learning as a set phrase alongside 'work up the courage' and 'work up an appetite'.
Is 'work up' informal? Can I use it in emails or professional writing?
'Work up' is neutral to slightly informal — it's very common in everyday speech and casual writing, but in more formal contexts, alternatives like 'summon' or 'muster' might be preferred. In a business email or professional report, 'I struggled to muster enthusiasm for the project' would sound more polished, though 'work up' wouldn't be considered wrong.
Can 'get worked up' be used for positive excitement, or is it always negative?
It can describe both anxious and excited emotions, but it most often implies that the feeling is excessive or hard to control. When used for positive excitement — like a crowd getting worked up before a concert — there's still a sense of heightened, almost overwhelming emotion rather than calm happiness.
Can I use 'will work up' to talk about the future?
In the emotional sense, 'will work up' sounds unnatural. Instead, use 'will get worked up' to talk about future emotional agitation — for example, 'She'll get worked up if you tell her at the last minute.' The 'get worked up' form handles both present and future contexts naturally.
Does 'work up' always need 'about' or 'over' after it?
No — you can say 'she was worked up' or 'he got worked up' without specifying a cause, and it's still perfectly natural. Adding 'about' or 'over' just clarifies what triggered the emotion, which is useful when the cause isn't already clear from context.
Is 'work up' used the same way in British and American English?
Yes — 'get worked up' is common in both British and American English with the same meaning. The only difference you might notice is that Americans sometimes say 'gotten worked up' in the present perfect, while British speakers tend to say 'got worked up', but both are correct.
Does 'work up' have other meanings, or does it always mean feeling upset or excited?
This same verb and particle combination does have another common meaning — gradually building or developing something, as in 'work up an appetite' or 'work up the courage to speak'. That sense is quite different, so pay attention to the context and the type of object used.
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