cheer up

Idioms

Become or make happy, raise the spirits of, as in This fine weather should cheer you up. This term may also be used as an imperative, as Shakespeare did (2 Henry IV, 4:4): “My sovereign lord, cheer up yourself.” [Late 1500s]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

cheer up

And as an artist, she’s glad that, even as a 16-year-old just beginning her career, she never gave in to the pressure to cheer up her tracks.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2025

“Maybe the current global situation, be it geopolitical or macroeconomic, does not lead people to cheer up and to open bottles of Champagne.”

From Salon ● Jan. 21, 2025

But, the Santa Monica Fire Department told Rogers they could try to look for an item she was seeking that she knew would cheer up her children.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 10, 2025

Voters started to cheer up about the economy.

From Slate ● Sep. 6, 2024

“I’m saying it because I’m a nurse, and nurses are supposed to cheer up their patients.”

From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023