size up
size up verb: to evaluate; to estimate or anticipate the magnitude, difficulty, or strength of something.
Verb
size up (third-person singular simple present sizes up, present participle sizing up, simple past and past participle sized up)
- To evaluate; to estimate or anticipate the magnitude, difficulty, or strength of something.
- It's a good idea for boxers to size up their opponents before their matches.
- Before we can begin to size up the problem, we'll need more information.
- To wear a larger size of clothing.
- This shirt runs tight, so you should size up.
Forms of size up
| third-person singular present | sizes up |
|---|---|
| present participle | sizing up |
| past participle | sized up |
| past | sized up |
Questions about size up
- What does size up mean?
- Size up means to evaluate; to estimate or anticipate the magnitude, difficulty, or strength of something.
- What part of speech is size up?
- Size up is a verb.
- What is the past tense of size up?
- The past tense of size up is sized up.
Words near size up in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: size 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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-size up.ogg.
Cite this entry: “size up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/size_up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
