Account for: To explain how/why. To give reasons. ex. "How do you account for the increase in production costs?"

Act on: To pursue. To take action because of information received. ex. "The military planned to act on the information they received."

Act out: To react negatively to something. ex. "Teenagers often act out to express their feelings."

Act up: To behave or function improperly. ex. "Facebook is acting up again."

Add up: 1) To calculate a sum. ex. "I added up all your bills. You owe me $120."

2) To make sense. Ex. "There's something about his story that doesn't add up. I don't think he's telling the truth."

Add up to: To equal an amount. ex. "Our monthly expenses added up to $500."

Allow for: To include. ex. "You have to allow for unexpected expenses in your budget."

Ask around: To ask several people or more. ex. "Do you have change for a 20? No, but ask around, I'm sure someone does."

Ask out: To ask to go on a date. ex. "I'm going to ask her out tomorrow."

Ask over: To invite to one's home. ex. "I would ask him over for dinner, but I'm afraid he would eat too much."

Attend to: To see about something (formal). ex. "I have to some business to attend to. I'll meet up with you later, John."

Back down:To retreat, relent. ex. "He didn't back down. He just kept on insulting me."

Back off: Not follow a threat. To step back. ex. "The man threatened to call the cops, but he backed off when I said I would pay for the damages."

Back out (of):To not keep (a promise, agreement,deal) ex. "The other investor backed out at the last second."

Back up: (1) Move backward; Move in reverse. ex. "You still have some room to back up a bit."

(2) To confirm a story, facts, or information; To support. ex. "If you don't believe me, ask Bill. He'll back me up." (3) To make a copy (computer data, etc.)

Bail out on someone:To leave someone (especially when they need you). ex. "That man bailed on his family when they needed him most." ex. "The Democrats have a plan to bail out the automotive industry."

Bail (someone) out:To save (someone). ex. "The Democrats have a plan to bail out the automotive industry."

Bang up:To damage. ex. "He banged up his car pretty bad."

Barge in:To enter, interrupting something. ex. "He barged in while we were eating dinner."

Bawl out:To scold. ex. "Mary's mother bawled her out for being mean to her sister."

Be after: To look for. ex. "The pirates are after the treasure."

Be along: To arrive. ex. "He'll be along in a bit."

Be down: To be depressed. ex. "I've been feeling a little down recently."

Be down with: *very informal* To be on good terms with something/someone. To like/respect someone/something.

Be in on: To be a part of; to be involved with; to know about. ex. "They police are obviously in on the plan."

Be off: (1) To be not quite right. ex. "The curry here is usually excellent, but today it's a little off."

(2) To not be at work (To have a day off work) ex. "I'm off today. Let's do something fun!"

Be on: To have a very good/successful performance (usually said of musicians, comics, and other entertainers) ex. If you go to a concert and a musician is playing or singing really well - you can say "He's really on tonight!"

Be onto (someone): To realize what someone is doing; to figure out someone's game, trick, etc. ex. He thought that he had everyone fooled, but I was onto him. (I realized what he was doing)

Be out of: To have none left. ex. We're out of milk. = We have no more milk.

Be out to (do something): To want to (do something). To have the intention of (doing something) ex. "He's out to kill me!"

Be up: To be awake. ex. "I'm sorry, he's not up yet."

Be up to (something): To be doing (something); To have something planned. ex. "What are you up to?", "I can tell that he's up to something."

Bear with (someone): To be patient with someone. ex. "Bear with me, I'll be done in about 10 minutes."

Beat out: To finish ahead of. ex. "Sandra beat out all the other contestants and finished first in the race."

Beat (someone) up: To physically harm (someone). ex. "What happened to you!? One of the school bullies beat me up today."

Blare out:To say/sing something very loudly.

Blast off:To leave the ground (when speaking about a rocket).

Blow (someone) away:To impress someone greatly. ex. "We were blown away by her performance."

Blow (someone) off:To say no to someone (This term has a somewhat negative connotation). ex. "We invited them for dinner last weekend, but they just blew us off."

Blow over:When speaking about a scandal, etc. - To stop becoming important. ex. "This scandal won't blow over any time soon."

Blow up:To explode. To destroy by exploding. ex. "The car blew up after the gasoline caught fire. Thankfully no one was inside."

Boil down to: To ammount to. ex. "What it boils down to is that I'm just not very interested."

Border on: To be very close/similar to. ex. "His behavior borders on psychotic."

Boss (someone) around: To tell someone what to do. ex. "I'm tired of her bossing me around!"

Bounce back: To recover. ex. "The stock market will bounce back."

Branch out: To explore new things, move into different areas (when speaking about a business, etc.) ex. "We were selling postcards, but we want to branch out into making envelopes."

Break down: To stop working / functioning. ex. "My car broke down on the highway yesterday."

Break in / Break into: To enter by using force (and breaking a lock, window, etc.) ex. "Someone broke into my apartment last night and stole all my CDs."

Break out (from prison, etc.): To escape. ex. "Michael broke out of prison last week."

Break up: (1)To disperse or scatter. ex. "The police had a hard time breaking up the crowd at the demonstration." (2) To end a personal relationship.ex. "Fiona and Colin are no longer together. They broke up last week."

Brighten up: To become better, most often used in the phrase "Things will brighten up."

Bring up: (1) To mention (as a topic of discussion). ex. "Don't bring up his relationship with his brother - he's very sensitive about that."(2) To raise. ex. "He was born in Houston, but he was brought up in Los Angeles."

Brush off: To ignore. ex. "He brushed off every criticism."

Brush up on / Bone up on (*not as popular*): To review/study thoroughly for a short time. ex. "I need to brush up on my French before my trip to Paris next month."

Bump into (or run into) someone: To meet someone you know unexpectedly. ex. "I bumped into her at the party last night."

Burn down: To completely destroy by fire. ex. "That house burned down last year."

Burn out: To become exhausted (from doing something too long/too intensively, etc.); To become exhausted, unenthusiastic about a job due to boredom, stress, etc.

Butt in:To impolitely interrupt (a conversation, an action). "Hey, don't butt in! Wait for your turn!"

Buy into: To accept/believe/trust. "I'm not gullible. I'm not buying into what he says."

Call for:To require. ex. "You're pregnant? This calls for a celebration!"

Call off:To cancel something. ex. "They called off the game because of the rain.

Call up:When speaking of soldiers, etc. - Requested to report for duty. ex. "My brother was called up last week."

Calm down:To relax; To make someone relax. ex. "Calm down, it's not as bad as you think!"

Cancel out:To bring something back to zero by cancelling its effect with a reverse effect. ex. "The refund that we received was cancelled out by the increase in fees."

Care for:1) To nurse someone or something. ex. "He cared for his sick father for three years."

2) To like someone or something. ex. "I don't really care for Thai food."

Carry off:Tp pull off.

Carry on about:To continue in an annoying way. ex. "He kept carrying on about how expensive his car is."

Carry out:To perform. ex. "Dr. Williams carried out the procedure."

Cash in on (sth.):To profit, make money from sth. ex. "The basketball player wanted to cash in on his popularity by opening a sports bar."

Catch on:To slowly start to understand. ex. "She caught on after a few minutes."

Catch up:1) To make up for lost time. ex. "I'm trying to catch up on my homework, since I was away from school for 2 weeks."

2) To talk to someone after not talking for a long time. ex. "Mary and I bumped into each other at the mall last week. We hadn't seen each other for a year, so we had a lot of catching up to do.

Cave in:To give in. To accept after being pressured and finally convinced, etc. ex. "My brother finally caved in and bought the new t-shirt that everyone is wearing."

Chalk (something) up to:To blame (something) on; To give the reason for (something). ex. "Don't worry about losing your wallet. Just chalk it up to bad luck."

Cheat on (someone):To be unfaithful (to one's husband, wife, girlfriend, etc.)

Check in/into:To enter or register at a hotel, airport, etc. ex. "Guests can only check in after 11 AM."

Check out:1) To investigate, take a look at. ex. "Hey, check out this website - it's really cool!"