key up


verb
  1. (tr, adverb) to raise the intensity, excitement, tension, etc, of

Words Nearby key up

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

How to use key up in a sentence

  • Sergeant Walpole saw his hand flicking a key up and down in the faint light of radio bulbs.

    Morale | Murray Leinster
  • Lock the door, Carey, and hang the key up in plain sight by the window there.

    The Indifference of Juliet | Grace S. Richmond
  • After he'd got into the room he'd put the key up, wouldn't he?

    Average Jones | Samuel Hopkins Adams
  • The effect of that always is to awaken to new alertness and vigor every mental power, as well as to key up every moral resolve.

  • "Mrs. Packard took the key up to her room," I explained, thinking that some sort of explanation was in order.

    The Mayor's Wife | Anna Katherine Green

Other Idioms and Phrases with key up

key up

Make intense, excited, or nervous. For example, The excitement of the gallery opening has really keyed her up. This usage alludes to key in the sense of “wind up a spring-driven mechanism such as a clock.” [Late 1800s]

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