Phrases & Expressions

To replace something you own, especially a property or vehicle, with a better and more expensive one.

• As their family grew, they traded up to a four-bedroom house with a garden.
• Some smartphone users trade up to the newest model as soon as it comes out.

To treat someone's rights, feelings or hopes as unimportant and ignore them completely.

• Human rights groups accused the regime of trampling on the basic freedoms of its citizens.
• The new law has been criticised for trampling on the privacy of ordinary internet users.

To encourage someone to keep going or to try harder, especially by shouting.

• Her coach stood at the side of the pool, urging her on during the final length.
• With her family urging her on, she decided to apply for a scholarship to study medicine abroad.

To make a plan, law or statement weaker or less extreme, often to make it more acceptable.

• After complaints from students, the university watered down its strict new attendance rules.
• Under pressure from industry, the government watered down its plans to ban single-use plastics.

To find and remove people or things that are unwanted or not good enough.

• Good researchers learn to weed out unreliable sources before they start writing.
• Some of the product reviews were clearly fake, so the website's moderators weeded them out within hours.

To contribute your opinion or information to a discussion that is already happening.

• Several experts weighed in with their views on the new education policy.
• My brother always weighs in with his opinion, even when nobody has asked for it.

To go past someone or something very fast, often making a rushing sound.

• Cyclists in the city complain that delivery vans whizz past them with only a few centimetres to spare.
• We were standing at the side of the track when the racing cars whizzed past at incredible speed.

To want something very much, especially something that is difficult or impossible to get.

• Many city workers yearn for a quieter life in the countryside, but few actually make the move.
• After years of conflict, the people of the region simply yearn for peace and stability.

To mention something in an indirect way, without talking about it openly.

• The poem alludes to the war without ever naming it, which makes it all the more powerful.
• In his speech, the manager alluded to possible job cuts but refused to give any details.

To spend time in a friendly way with rich or powerful people, often to gain some advantage.

• Critics accused the mayor of spending more time hobnobbing with wealthy donors than listening to local residents.
• He loves hobnobbing with celebrities at expensive parties, but his old friends find it a bit embarrassing.