punch up

See also: punchup and punch-up

English

Pronunciation

(noun) IPA^(key): /ˈpʌntʃ ˌʌp/
- Audio (Southern England): (file)
(verb) IPA^(key): /ˌpʌntʃ ˈʌp/
- Audio (Southern England): (file)

Verb

punch up (third-person singular simple present punches up, present participle punching up, simple past and past participle punched up)

(transitive) To beat (someone) up by punching, to fist-fight.
(intransitive, slang) To attack or target a group of greater power or status than oneself.
Synonyms: punch upward, punch upwards

Antonym: punch down
(transitive) To make bolder, zestier, or more exciting.
- 2013, America's Test Kitchen, Comfort Food Makeovers: All Your Favorites Made Lighter:
  To punch up the flavor even more, we looked to an untraditional ingredient: fish sauce.
- 2025 June 30, Adrienne Matei, “‘Hey man, I’m so sorry for your loss’: should you use AI to text?”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎^[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC:
  Yet AI is becoming the invisible infrastructure of personal communications, too – punching up text messages, birthday cards and obituaries, even though we associate such compositions with “from the heart” authenticity.
  (Can we archive this URL?)
(transitive, television) To switch (a source) into the main transmission.
- 1970, Larry G. Goodwin, Thomas Koehring, Closed-circuit Television Production Techniques, page 80:
  Sound films have to be loaded so that the sound is 5 seconds before the sound drum so a wow does not result when the film is punched up on the air.
- 1982, Thomas D. Burrows, Donald N. Wood, Television Production: Disciplines and Techniques, page 132:
  In this illustrated example, camera 2 is punched up on the program buss and is therefore being sent out directly […]

Related terms

punch-up session

Noun

punch up (plural punch ups)

Misspelling of punch-up.

References

punch-up, freedictionary.com