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Affixes: the building blocks of English
Affixes: the building blocks of English
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-up

An activity.

[English up.]

Some nouns have been formed from phrasal verbs that include up, as sign-up, the action of enrolling for something, comes from the verb phrase to sign up, or warm-up, a period or act of preparation for a match or performance, from to warm up; others are chat-up and take-up. Many others have been created on this model, mostly informal terms: booze-up, cock-up, frame-up, a conspiracy to falsely incriminate someone; knees-up, a party or lively gathering; lace-up, a shoe or boot that is fastened with laces; mix-up, a confusion of one thing with another; pick-me-up, a restorative; toss-up, a situation in which any of two or more outcomes is equally possible or attractive.

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