Phrasal Verbs: Use These 7 To Sound AMAZING!

Let’s work together on your spoken English and nail all 7 of these animal-related phrasal verbs. 

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Video Transcript:

Phrasal verbs are one of the trickiest parts of English. And today we’re looking at phrasal verbs that use a word for an animal but the meaning doesn’t have to do with the animal.   

Since the meanings might be new or confusing to you, I’ll give you plenty of examples from real life so you know exactly how to use them to express yourself effectively in English conversation.  

First ‘rat out’. Rat. The classic New York City animal and a tester in labs all over. Rat out means to inform someone in authority about something wrong that someone has done. For example, I ratted out my friends for cheating in the ninth grade. I felt bad about it but I knew it was the right thing to do.  

Have you ever ratted anyone out?  

If you both say nothing you’ll each get say a year in jail. If you rat out your friend you might get off scot-free while your friend gets the maximum sentence and if you both rat each other out, you’ll both get a few years. If you rat out your friend,  

What was that like joining? Was the crew already pretty tight?  

Was it? I’m not asking you to rat out like your colleagues  

No, of course not. It’s a really good group of people and– 

I’m not asking you to rat out your colleagues–  

You know, the big thing magicians are not supposed to rat out each other’s tricks and they’re like no we’re going to, we’re going to do that.  

Rat out each other’s tricks– 

Because they can use them as leverage to drive uh plea bargains because they can use them to turn low-level offenders and get them to um rat out their bosses.   

And get them to rat out their bosses.  

The wife of the president said that people have to eat healthy so we need to plant a garden. My friend said that he then proceeded to rat out his friend and I won’t name his friend because there are cameras here, but he ratted out his friend who quote eats bad food and therefore is not healthy.  

Proceeded to rat out his friend.   

Rat out. To inform authority about something wrong or illegal that someone has done she ratted out her boss when she realized he was cheating on his taxes.  

Next: beef up. Beef is the meat we get from cows but ‘beef up’ means to give more substance or strength to something. For example, “I understand your argument for changing the testing format but you might want to beef it up with more examples on how it’s helped students.” or “He’s really beefed up since he started lifting weights.”  

Based on where it’s earned or where the corporation lives and deemphasize that element, and instead beef up the idea of taxing the income based on where the shareholders live. 

Beef up the idea of taxing– 

$1,000 check, yes a giant check for a grand like a rent check, meant to help beef up the school’s library collection. 

Meant to help beef up the school’s library collection.  

Do you feel that now, because you were in the public eye that you sort of have to beef up your knowledge of, I mean you wrote an entire book on evolution, clearly you felt you had to beef up your knowledge on that.  

That you sort of have to beef up your knowledge.  

But the flood left over $3 billion in damage in its wake prompting the federal government to beef up flood control along the Ohio river and in Memphis.  

To beef up flood control.  

Skills if you just want to come back to school and, and maybe you need to beef up your computer skills you can do that at your local community college and I–  

maybe you need to beef up your computer skills,  

Beef up. To give more substance or strength to something.  

You need to beef up your argument if you’re going to convince me.  

Next: fawn over.   

A fawn is a baby deer but to fawn over means to praise someone too much and give them a lot of attention. Really, too much attention. It can seem insincere. He really fawns over his oldest daughter, I think it makes the other two feel left out. Have you ever seen someone fawning over someone else? 

He’s such a humble human being. He’s so self-deprecating and he hates it when people fawn over him.  

When people fawn over him. 

She is very in charge of her sexuality like men just fawn over her kind of thing. She’s very, very beautiful and men just fawn over her. 

That we fawn over people in our lives as a way to prevent them from harming us again.  

We fawn over people in our lives– 

I’m a journalist by nature so that’s how I operate. I’m not ready to fawn over something and I’m not ready to bash something, I’m not ready to fawn over something, 

Forbidden romance is the thing a lot of people idealize and fawn over rooting for it to work out in the end through all the trials and tribulations. 

A lot of people idealize and fawn over.  

Fawn over. To praise someone and give them a lot of positive attention. She fawns over the smartest kids in class and forgets about the rest of us.  

Next: squirrel away. A squirrel is a small animal found all over the place in the US. By the way, I know this word is really tricky to pronounce and I do have a video on how to pronounce squirrel. They’re very common. Parks, yards. Squirrels gather and save acorns. So, to squirrel away means to put something in a safe or secret place especially so it can be kept for the future. 

For example, “He’s been squirreling away money for retirement.”  

When we have exciting new ideas our first instinct is to squirrel them away so no one can steal them. 

to squirrel them away.   

They follow the rules because there’s somebody looking over their shoulders but they find ways to like teachers. will follow the scripted curriculum but they’ll do it at double time. And so they squirrel away 10 minutes here and 20 minutes there and a half hour there.  

They squirrel away 10 minutes here.  

There’s Americans who are going to have terribly insecure retirements they’re going to have to live on whatever they’ve managed to squirrel away to their own savings.  

to squirrel away to their own savings.  

I have a lot left over depending on the project. Extra scraps that I would then go squirrel away in my fabric stash. 

I would then go squirrel away– 

The first thing it deals with is 50 bucks. You can squirrel away 50 bucks. Just try, believe in yourself.  

You can squirrel away 50 bucks.  

Squirrel away.  

To save something for the future.  

I’ve been squirreling away his old soccer jerseys throughout his childhood because I want to make a quilt out of them when he goes to college.  

Next: chicken out. A chicken, a common barnyard animal one of the main staples of the American diet. To chicken out means to decide not to do something because you’re afraid.  

For example, “I was going to jump off the high dive but I chickened out.” Have you ever chickened out of doing something?  

If you only really talk to them over text, if there’s no in-person interaction well then guess what? You can tell them all day how you like them but when it finally comes the meeting face to face, you’re going to chicken out.  

You’re going to chicken out.  

Okay, I’ve made this appointment and I, I need to go but I, I always chicken out and I get really anxious and I don’t, you know I get overwhelmed, and so I can’t go.  

I always chicken out.   

They were coming from this feeling like, “Oh my God, I’m not going to do this, I’m going to chicken out, I’m not going to do this and it’s going to be the biggest mistake of my life.”  

I’m going to chicken out, I’m not going to do this.  

That in the book um, The Gunslinger, he kills the little kid. And in the movie of course they chicken out, they don’t show it don’t talk about it nothing I was mortified so–  

They chicken out, they don’t show it, don’t talk about it nothing– 

Because Mitch McConnell decided to chicken out and even though reports as recently as this time yesterday were telling us that McConnell was secretly cheering on impeachment, yeah.  

Decided to chicken out.   

Another thing that I want to get more confident on at least is skiing steep stuff, because if I think about it for too long I generally tend to chicken out. 

I generally tend to chicken out.  

Chicken out. To not do something because you’re afraid. 

She says she’ll go bungee jumping with me on vacation but I’m afraid she’s going to chicken out.  

Next: wolf down. You may know that a wolf is a wild animal, part of the dog family. To wolf down is when you eat as fast as possible, as if you were a ravenous wolf in the wild. To eat without table manners. After the marathon she wolfed down a bagel.  

Where couples in courtship would keep a slice of apple crammed under their armpit during dances, and at the end of the evening the girl would give the guy she most fancied her used fruit and if he the feeling was mutual, he would wolf down that stinky apple.  

He would wolf down that stinky apple– 

Well, that’s just weird.  

These fruits don’t hold a candle to the very worst thing, Zimmern said. He had to wolf down though fermented spoiled food like Iceland’s Hakarl ranks as his absolute least favorite thing to try.  

Zimmern said he had to wolf down.  

And if you follow some recommendations, you should take a long time eating food because we are a nation of under chewers that we uh, we just wolf down our food–  

that we just wolf down our food–   

A Disney princess who can make this incredible. Alright, I will not subject to you guys to watch me wolf down the rest of this, 

to watch me wolf town the rest of this, 

He just knows to move these around but he can’t come in here with an open mouth and wolf it down. And that’s when you run the risk of choke because you wolf down too much at once. 

With an open mouth and wolf it down.   

Wolf down. To eat very fast.  

Will you please wolf down your sandwich? we need to get going.  

Our final phrasal verb, okay it’s not an animal but it’s the word ‘farm’. It’s to ‘farm out’. It means to send out or subcontract work to others.  

For example, “I don’t think my audio editor does all his own editing. I think he farms out some of the work to his friends.”  

I saw that happen for 10 years straight and there’s no way I want to pay a company to learn that much and not get the learning. So this, it’s one thing. Like, I’ll farm out graphic design, I’ll Farm out engineering, if we have to. Um, there’s I’ll farm out pretty much anything to build capacity,  

I’ll farm out graphic design, I’ll farm out engineering,  

Assignments that you can easily farm out to some third party. Assignments that you can easily farm out to some third party. People who were studying with him as though he were a school and paying him to do that, um and he would farm out an apprentice to each house for the most part.  

He would farm out an apprentice to each house–  

How is filtering information going to be more collaborative, how do we, uh farm out some of the work to machines.  

How do we farm out some of the work to machines.  

Uh, some of the stuff we do ourselves and some of the stuff we farm out to a vendor.  

Some the stuff we do ourselves on the stuff we farm out to a vendor.  

Farm out. To subcontract work to others.  

They farm out their call center overseas.  

Seven phrasal verbs and here’s a challenge: Take one of them and write a sentence in the comments below using it.  

Keep your learning going now with this video and don’t forget to subscribe with notifications on so you never miss a video. I love being your English teacher. That’s it and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English. 

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