Word.ws English Dictionary

pull one's socks up

pull one's socks up verb: to start making an effort; to renew or redouble one's efforts.

Verb

pull one's socks up (third-person singular simple present pulls one's socks up, present participle pulling one's socks up, simple past and past participle pulled one's socks up)

  1. (idiomatic) To start making an effort; to renew or redouble one's efforts.
    • They're all going to pull their socks up and play a bit better.2000 October 20, Jeff Zillgitt, “U.S. dominates first day of Presidents Cup”, in USA Today, retrieved 30 Sep 2008

Synonyms of pull one's socks up

Forms of pull one's socks up

third-person singular presentpulls one's socks up
present participlepulling one's socks up
past participlepulled one's socks up
pastpulled one's socks up

Questions about pull one's socks up

What does pull one's socks up mean?
Pull one's socks up means to start making an effort; to renew or redouble one's efforts.
What part of speech is pull one's socks up?
Pull one's socks up is a verb.
What is the past tense of pull one's socks up?
The past tense of pull one's socks up is pulled one's socks up.

Words near pull one's socks up in the dictionary

  1. pull one's horns in
  2. pull one's oar
  3. pull one's own weight
  4. pull one's pud
  5. pull one's punches
  6. pull one's socks up
  7. pull one's weight
  8. pull oneself
  9. pull oneself together
  10. pull oneself up by one's bootstraps
  11. pull oneself up by one's own bootstraps

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pull one's socks up (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-pull one's socks up.ogg.

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