pick up

To pick up means to collect or gather someone or something from a place, to gradually improve or increase in speed, activity, or quality, or to learn a skill or language through informal experience rather than formal study.

Type

Separable phrasal verb.

Notes

When 'pick up' means to collect something or someone, it is separable, meaning a noun object can come between the verb and the particle: 'Pick the parcel up' or 'Pick up the parcel' are both correct. However, when the object is a pronoun, it must go between the verb and the particle: say 'Pick it up,' never 'Pick up it.' When the meaning is 'to improve' or 'to learn informally,' no object is required.

Conjugation

Narrative

Marta had landed in Montreal with one connecting flight left and forty minutes to spare. She had me a few French phrases on the plane, b when the gate agent spoke quickly over the intercom, she understood almost nothing. She found a woman reading a map near the gate and asked for help. The woman laughed ki and slowed down. B the time Marta boarded her second flight, she had pi three new expressions and felt ge proud. She w them on the back of her boarding pass so she wouldn't forget them before landing. S , she worried she'd mix them up.

Register

Neutral

In the autumn of 1940, a young Charles de Gaulle had almost nothing — no army, no territory, no formal government. He had fled France after its fall to Nazi Germany and arrived in London with little more than a uniform and an idea. He spoke almost no English on arrival. Y over the following months, he ab the language through daily meetings with Churchill's staff, radio broadcasts, and street conversations around Westminster. By 1941, he was conducting interviews and negotiations in fu English. More critically, volunteers began joining his Free French Forces in small numbers, then larger ones — soldiers ar from French colonies, merchant sailors, resistance couriers. What had been a sy movement of one man and a borrowed BBC microphone slowly began to gather real momentum. Historians often mark late 1941 as the point when the Free French genuinely picked up strength, transforming from a symbolic gesture into a fi force that would matter at D-Day and beyond. Inrds , De Gaulle's story is a reminder that recovery — whether of a language, a cause, or a country — rarely happens all at once. You pi things piece by piece, until suddenly the momentum is undeniable.

To cut down means to reduce the amount or frequency of something, especially a habit or activity that you do too much. It suggests making a gradual or deliberate decrease rather than stopping completely.

Type

Separable phrasal verb.

Notes

When 'cut down' is used with a direct object (a noun), the object can appear either between 'cut' and 'down' or after 'down' — for example, 'cut down your expenses' or 'cut your expenses down.' However, when the object is a pronoun, it must go between the two parts: 'cut them down,' never 'cut down them.' When followed by 'on,' the phrase becomes 'cut down on' and is not separated.

Conjugation

Narrative

Maria had always driven everywhere — to the supermarket, to her sister's flat, even to the corner shop two streets away. B when petrol prices surged in the spring, she sat down with her monthly bank statements and felt a fa dread. She ma her usual routes and realized she was making over forty short car trips a week. She decided to cut down on unary journeys, re anything under two kilometres with walking or cycling. Three weeks in, she was sleeping better, spending less, a actually enjoying the route past the canal on Tuesday mornings. S , the car, she figured, could wait — she had learned to cu without really missing it.

Register

Neutral

In the early 1970s, the United States was consuming roughly a third of the world's oil while facing mounting economic strain. When OPEC im its oil embargo in October 1973, cutting supplies to the US and triggering panic at petrol stations, President Richard Nixon addressed the nation on November 7, 1973, and announced a package of ur measures. Americans were asked to lower thermostat settings, reduce highway speeds to 55 mph, and — crucially — cut down on car travel wherever possible. Me , airlines were directed to reduce flights; offices were told to dim their lights. The 55 mph speed limit became federal law in 1974 and remained in force until 1995. What began as a crisis response re American habits for a generation: carpooling grew, smaller cars gained popularity, and the idea that consumption could — and sometimes must — be deely reduced entered mainstream political life. The embargo lasted only five months, b its lesson endured. Noess , nations, like individuals, sometimes need a sharp external pressure before they genuinely commit to cuown on what they had always taken for granted.

To become completely exhausted and lose all energy or motivation, usually because of working too hard or being under too much stress for a long time. When someone burns out, they often feel unable to continue doing their job effectively.

Type

Inseparable phrasal verb.

Notes

When 'burn out' is used as an intransitive phrasal verb — meaning a person becomes exhausted — it is inseparable: no object comes between the two parts. You say 'She burned out after months of overwork,' never 'She burned herself out' in this intransitive sense. Note, however, that the related transitive form (where something exhausts another person, as in 'The job burned him out') does allow an object, but the most common self-directed use remains inseparable.

Conjugation

Narrative

Priya had been a software developer at the same fintech startup for three years. In the final push before the product launch, she was ro sending emails at midnight and skipping lunch to fix bugs. One Tuesday morning, she sat at her desk, op her laptop, and simply could not type a single line of code. Her manager no she'd gone quiet and asked her into a one-on-one. 'I think I'm bu ,' Priya admitted, her voice st but tired. Her manager closed his notebook. 'Then we fix the workload, not you,' he said, a they b a real schedule together that afternoon. S , the exhaustion, once named, finally had somewhere to go. Ev , it took weeks to feel normal again.

Register

Neutral

In the early 1940s, the British mathematician and codebreaker Alan Turing was at the center of one of history's most consequential intellectual efforts — breaking Nazi Germany's Enigma cipher at Bletchley Park. Turing worked at a pace that was extraordinary even among his brilliant peers, often going days with little sleep, ob over logical problems that others had abandoned. By 1942 and into 1943, colleagues noted that he had become increasingly wi , cycling compulsively between his billet and the hut, eating erratically, and struggling to engage with the institutional politics that were consuming Bletchley. He eventually stack from direct operational codebreaking leadership and moved toward more theoretical work on computing. Historians have noted that the sheer gr intensity of the war years — the stakes, the secrecy, the re pressure — took a measurable toll on e his extraordinary capacity. S , the documented shift in Turing's role and demeanor during this period is one of history's clearest examples of what happens when sustained, high-pressure intellectual work is carried beyond what any person can maintain: in , even the most brilliant minds can bu .

To use all of something so that there is none left; to have no more of something available. When you run out of something, you have used or consumed the last of it.

Type

Inseparable phrasal verb.

Notes

"Run out" is inseparable when used in its core meaning. The object always follows the preposition "of": say "We ran out of water" — never "We ran water out." The phrase "run out" cannot be split by placing the object between "run" and "out."

Conjugation

Narrative

Marta was two hours into her solo road trip across rural Portugal when her phone buzzed a low-battery warning. She'd forgotten her car charger. Worse, she suddenly realised she'd also ru of cash — the last village had no ATM. She pulled over near an olive grove and th calmly: the next town was thirty kilometres ahead. She fl down a passing driver, explained in br Portuguese, and borrowed a pen to write down directions to a petrol station with a money exchange. S crisis, small solution. S , she was back on the road in twenty minutes, th still a little shaken. Ev , she laughed about it later.

Register

Neutral

In August 1914, the British Expeditionary Force re from Mons, Belgium, after holding against oving German forces. By the time units reached Le Cateau, many soldiers had run critically low on ammunition — some battalions had fired over 400 rounds per man in a single day. At the Battle of Le Cateau on August 26th, General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien made the coial decision to turn and fight rather than continue retreating, partly because exhausted troops could not outrun the enemy, and partly because supply lines had broken down so severely that some units had effectively exhausted their reserves. The battle cost the British nearly 8,000 casualties b bo precious time for the main retreat to continue. Military historians point to this episode as a s example of how running out of essential supplies — ammunition, food, rest — forces commanders into decisions they would never otherwise make. Th a resource ru in the field, options collapse rapidly.