brace up


Also, brace oneself. Summon up one's courage or resolve, as in Brace up, we don't have much farther to go, or Squaring his shoulders, he braced himself for the next wave. This idiom uses brace in the sense of “to bolster” or “to strengthen.” The first term dates from the early 1700s, the variant from about 1500.

Words Nearby brace up

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

How to use brace up in a sentence

  • Don't fib; brace up and make a clean breast of it, and if you need advice I am full of it.

    The Story of the Big Front Door | Mary Finley Leonard
  • Accordingly the Latin phrase which literally means “Gird up your loins” was translated “brace up!”

  • And under this inspiring kind of talk the track captain did brace up, so that he even allowed a smile to creep over his grim face.

    Fred Fenton on the Track | Allen Chapman
  • brace up man, and try to look as near like yourself as you can.

    Bats in the Wall | P. T. Raymond
  • But let me tell you, my boy, this baby ought to make you brace up.

    Polly in New York | Lillian Elizabeth Roy