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.

“Hey-hey, we shall cheer up our glorious Ukraine!”

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 26, 2026

“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

Voters started to cheer up about the economy.

From Slate • Sep. 6, 2024

Vice-President Kashim Shettima, who visited the Super Eagles' dressing room after the defeat, asked them to cheer up, saying: "It's not easy being the second best team on the African continent."

From BBC • Feb. 12, 2024

“He had to move back,” Yossarian argued in a vain effort to cheer up the glum, barrel-chested Indian, whose well-knit sorrel-red face had degenerated rapidly into a dilapidated, calcareous gray.

From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller

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