shape-up
shape-up noun: gathering of workers to be picked for a job.
Noun
shape-up (plural shape-ups)
- Gathering of workers to be picked for a job.
- But if he is absent at the shape-up – when the boss stevedore blows his whistle and the men line up in a semi-circle outside the pier to be picked – another man gets his place for the time being, and it may be that he will miss the ship entirely.1914 July, W.M. Houghton, “The Longshoreman's Life is Short but Seldom Merry”, in Temperance: A Monthly Journal of the Church Temperance Society, volume 6, number 11, page 14
- At each shape-up there is a new employment.1957, Burrhus Frederic Skinner, Verbal Behavior
- Activity to get someone or something back into shape.
- Shower shape-ups have two advantages.1990, The New Complete Medical and Health Encyclopedia, page 1147
- All the recipes for this 6-week shape-up are tasty and nutritious.2017, Liz Earle, Liz Earle's 6-Week Shape Up Plan
- Hairstyle
- I noticed my shape-ups weren't as nice as some of my friends from the city.2005, Spiro Milas, December 23, page 11
- Billy used to give us shape-ups to our hair. I went by his house one morning to get a shape-up, and he was shaking really bad.2019, David Lyons, The Boy Becomes a Man: Confessions of an Honest Politician
Forms of shape-up
| plural | shape-ups |
|---|
Questions about shape-up
- What does shape-up mean?
- Shape-up means gathering of workers to be picked for a job.
- What part of speech is shape-up?
- Shape-up is a noun.
- What is the plural of shape-up?
- The plural of shape-up is shape-ups.
Words near shape-up in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: shape-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: “shape-up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shape-up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.