talk up
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English
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Verb
[edit]talk up (third-person singular simple present talks up, present participle talking up, simple past and past participle talked up)
- (idiomatic, transitive) To talk about (something or someone) to make it seem as good as possible or to draw positive attention to it.
- The restaurant had been talked up way too much, that it left me somewhat disappointed.
- Charlie's been talking up Robbie in an attempt to set him up with Lucy.
- 2022 September 21, Christian Wolmar, “Trevelyan must 'give a damn' and engage with the railway”, in RAIL, number 966, page 45:
- Moreover, the new Prime Minister has already talked up the need for new strike-breaking legislation, in the form of requirements for railworkers to provide a minimum service during any industrial action.
- (idiomatic, intransitive) To talk louder.
- (intransitive) To speak in a plain and candid way, or with bold impudence.
- 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 19”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
- “Look here, friend,” said I, “if you have anything important to tell us, out with it; but if you are only trying to bamboozle us, you are mistaken in your game; that’s all I have to say.”
And it’s said very well, and I like to hear a chap talk up that way; you are just the man for him—the likes of ye.