Word.ws English Dictionary

sizing up

sizing up is the present participle and gerund of size up.

Meaning of size up

Verb

size up (third-person singular simple present sizes up, present participle sizing up, simple past and past participle sized up)

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) 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.
  2. (intransitive) To wear a larger size of clothing.
    • This shirt runs tight, so you should size up.

Questions about sizing up

What is sizing up the present participle and gerund of?
Sizing up is the present participle and gerund of size up.

Words near sizing up in the dictionary

  1. Sizhou
  2. sizhu
  3. siziness
  4. sizing
  5. sizing down
  6. sizing up
  7. sizings
  8. sizism
  9. sizist
  10. sizists
  11. sizofiran

Source and license

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

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