big up
English
Pronunciation
Audio (AU): (file)
Verb
big up (third-person singular simple present bigs up, present participle bigging up, simple past and past participle bigged up or (rare) big upped)
- (British, slang, idiomatic) To increase one's muscle mass through exercise.
- He works out every day to big up himself.
- (Jamaica, slang, idiomatic) To proclaim or exaggerate the importance of.
- I want to big up my bro on the mic.
- They're trying to big themselves up to be more than they are.
- 2007, Apple announces new mobile phone, BBC Online, 9 January 2007
- In a keynote speech, attended by over 2,000 people, Steve Jobs spent the first 10 minutes bigging up the move to Intel chips.
Synonyms
- (increase one's muscle mass): build up, bulk up, pump iron, work out
- (exaggerate the importance of): overemphasize, overplay, play up