pal up

English

Verb

pal up (third-person singular simple present pals up, present participle palling up, simple past and past participle palled up)

1. (intransitive, informal, UK, Australia) To become friends.
   • 1955, Richard Gordon, Doctor At Large, House of Stratus:

     He'd happened to pal up with a Free French bloke who'd been in the orthopaedic wards, and when this fellow went home with a couple of bone grafts Rushleigh got an invitation to stay at his place down at Nice, buckshee.

   • 1996, Laurie Graham, The Ten O'Clock Horses, Hachette UK:

     ... you could make a bit of conversation.' 'I don't want to. I'm on holiday with my family. I don't want to pal up with some bloke from the Pru, just because he's asked me to pass the sauce.'

   • 2006, David Seabrook, Jack of Jumps, Granta Publications:

     Normally in the CID you'd pal up with somebody, but nobody seemed to be his pal. 'He was creepy, a creepy type of bloke, you know. He always seemed to be hanging around, and he always seemed to be bloody listening to other people's […]

2. To form an alliance.
   • 1928, United Mine Workers Journal - Volume 39, page 6:

     WHEN union-busting coal operators and the sowers of red philosopies "pal" up together it is the beginning of a situation that affects the entire country.

   • 2006, Women of China, page 14:

     Governmental and/or non-governmental organizations may "pal up" with schools for migrant children to provide assistance — such as contributions, teaching and protecting the students' rights and interests.

   • 2008, Christopher Harvie, A Floating Commonwealth, page 103:

     Recreating the Scottish enlightenment-inspired liberalism of the 1790s, Ulster would cancel out a Catholic authoritarianism only too prone to pal up with the Tom Broadbents of British capitalism.

3. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) (intransitive, informal) To form a small group.

Synonyms

• buddy up

Anagrams

• Uppal, lap up, luppa, pupal