talk up

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

talk up (third-person singular simple present talks up, present participle talking up, simple past and past participle talked up)

1. (idiomatic, transitive) To talk about (something or someone) to make it seem as good as possible or to draw positive attention to it.

   The restaurant had been talked up way too much, that it left me somewhat disappointed.

   Charlie's been talking up Robbie in an attempt to set him up with Lucy.

   • 2022 September 21, Christian Wolmar, “Trevelyan must 'give a damn' and engage with the railway”, in RAIL, number 966, page 45:

     Moreover, the new Prime Minister has already talked up the need for new strike-breaking legislation, in the form of requirements for railworkers to provide a minimum service during any industrial action.

2. (idiomatic, intransitive) To talk louder.
3. (intransitive) To speak in a plain and candid way, or with bold impudence.
   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 19”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     “Look here, friend,” said I, “if you have anything important to tell us, out with it; but if you are only trying to bamboozle us, you are mistaken in your game; that’s all I have to say.”
     And it’s said very well, and I like to hear a chap talk up that way; you are just the man for him—the likes of ye.

Synonyms

• (talk about someone positively): big up, promote
• (talk louder): speak up

See also

• chat up

Anagrams

• uptalk