Word.ws English Dictionary

shapes up

shapes up is the third-person singular simple present indicative of shape up.

Meaning of shape up

Verb

shape up (third-person singular simple present shapes up, present participle shaping up, simple past and past participle shaped up)

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To improve; to correct one's bad habits or behavior.
    • He'd better shape up soon, or he'll fail the class.
  2. (idiomatic, intransitive) To take shape; to transform into or become.
    • The fog has vanished and it's shaping up to be a beautiful day.
    Synonyms:
    become, turn into, turn out to be
  3. (intransitive, slang) To gesture or posture threateningly; to approach as if to fight; to pose to intimidate.
    Synonyms:
    bridge up

Questions about shapes up

What is shapes up the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Shapes up is the third-person singular simple present indicative of shape up.

Words near shapes up in the dictionary

  1. Shapero
  2. Shaperos
  3. shapers
  4. shapes
  5. shapes for
  6. shapes up
  7. shapes up or ships out
  8. shapeshift
  9. shapeshifted
  10. shapeshifter
  11. shapeshifters

Source and license

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

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