100 Phrasal Verbs

1. abide by
   to accept or obey an agreement, decision, or rule:
   Drivers must abide by the traffic rules while driving in residential areas.

2. break down

i) If a machine or vehicle breaks down, it stops working:

Our car broke down and we had to push it off the road.

ii) to be unable to control your feelings and to start to cry:
When we gave her the bad news, she broke down and cried.

3. break in/into
   to get into a building or car using force, usually to steal something:

The burglars broke in through the kitchen window.
My car's been broken into twice this month.

4. bring in
   i) to introduce something new such as a product or a law:

New safety regulations have been brought in.

ii) to make money:
Their chain of restaurants brings in millions of dollars a year.

iii) to earn money:
She brings in about $600 a week.

iv) to ask someone to do a particular job:
We need to bring in an expert to deal with this problem.

5. bring up
   i) to care for a child until they are an adult, often giving them particular beliefs:

She was brought up by her grandmother.
My father was a real authoritarian so we were brought up very strictly.

ii) to start to talk about a particular subject:
She's always bringing up her health problems.

6. catch up (with)
   i) to reach someone in front of you by going faster than them:

I ran after her and managed to catch up with her.

ii) to reach the same quality or standard as someone or something else:
Will Western industry ever catch up with Japanese innovations?
He was off school for a while and is finding it hard to catch up.

iii) to do something you did not have time to do earlier:
She's staying late at the office to catch up with/on some reports.

7. call off

i) to decide that a planned event will not happen:

Tomorrow's match has been called off because of the icy weather.

The police have called off the search for the missing child until dawn tomorrow.

ii) To call off a dog is to order it to stop attacking someone or something:

I shouted to him to call his dog off, but he just laughed at me.

8. calm down
   to stop feeling upset, angry, or excited, or to stop someone feeling this way:

She sat down and took a few deep breaths to calm herself down.
She was angry at first but we managed to calm her down.

9. carry on
   to continue doing something, or to cause something to continue:

Let's carry on this discussion at some other time.
Sorry to interrupt, please carry on (with what you were saying).

10. carry out

to do, perform or complete a job or activity; to fulfill:

Dr Carter is carrying out research on early Christian art.
The hospital is carrying out tests to find out what's wrong with her.
Our soldiers carried out a successful attack last night.

Stay tuned for more!