Word.ws English Dictionary

punches up

punches up is the third-person singular simple present indicative of punch up.

Meaning of punch up

Verb

punch up (third-person singular simple present punches up, present participle punching up, simple past and past participle punched up)

  1. (transitive) To beat (someone) up by punching, to fist-fight.
    • He came back all punched up. He got a few stitches — they really punched him up good.
  2. (intransitive, slang) To attack, counterattack, or target a group of greater power or status than oneself.
    • Her standup act involves a lot of punching up. It's possible to punch down in standup, a little bit here and there, but it's tricky to get right.
    Antonyms:
    punch down
  3. (transitive) To make bolder, zestier, or more exciting.
    • Near-synonyms: kick up, spice up
    Synonyms:
    kick up, spice up
  4. (transitive) To switch (a source) into the main transmission.
    • Sound films have to be loaded so that the sound is 5 seconds before the sound drum so a wow does not result when the film is punched up on the air.1970, Larry G. Goodwin, Thomas Koehring, Closed-circuit Television Production Techniques, page 80

Questions about punches up

What is punches up the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Punches up is the third-person singular simple present indicative of punch up.

Words near punches up in the dictionary

  1. punches in
  2. punches out
  3. punches someone's lights out
  4. punches someone's ticket
  5. punches the air
  6. punches up
  7. punches upward
  8. punches upwards
  9. Puncheston
  10. puncheur
  11. puncheurs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: punches up (page history and authors); punch 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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “punches up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/punches_up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.