limber up

English[edit]

limber up (third-person singular simple present limbers up, present participle limbering up, simple past and past participle limbered up)

(intransitive) To stretch one's muscles to make them more limber, usually as a preparation for physical exercise.
The swimmer limbered up for a few minutes before the final.
(transitive) To make (someone or something) more limber or flexible.
You need to limber up your wits before the exam.

A good massage will limber up the neck and arms.
(intransitive, figuratively) To prepare; to make oneself ready.
- 2018 July 9, Timothy Garton Ash, “Liberal Europe isn’t dead yet. But its defenders face a long, hard struggle”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:
  As politicians limber up for European elections in the summer of 2019, the biggest party grouping in the European parliament, the European People’s party, is desperately clinging on to Orbán’s Fidesz party, and has even been making furtive overtures to Poland’s PiS, for fear of the Orbvini camp forming a new alliance to compete with it.
To attach a limber.
(Can we add an example for this sense?)

to stretch one's muscles to make them more limber