Word.ws English Dictionary

step up to the plate

step up to the plate verb: to initiate action; to assume or take a responsibility.

Verb

step up to the plate (third-person singular simple present steps up to the plate, present participle stepping up to the plate, simple past and past participle stepped up to the plate)

  1. (US, idiomatic) To initiate action; to assume or take a responsibility.
    • Surround yourself with good people who can reliably step up to the plate and solve problems when they occur.2008 June 12, Beth Stackpole, “The IT pro's vacation planner”, in Computerworld, retrieved 17 Jun 2020
    • When you introduce a new and very important issue, you are likely to inspire some of those who have been sitting back to step up to the plate and take on the new role of promoting ethical practice.2013, Janice Gow Pettey, Nonprofit Fundraising Strategy, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 207
    Synonyms:
    volunteer, offer

step up to the plate meaning in Bengali

step up to the plate in Bengali

পদক্ষেপ গ্রহণ করা

Examples of step up to the plate in a sentence

  • However, every time you fail to do something, you make it harder to step up to the plate for the next challenge.2014, Henry Evans, Colm Foster, Step Up, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 78:
  • "There is something in railway people that has encouraged them to step up to the plate," says Starr.2021 January 27, Paul Clifton, “What is the future of the RDG?”, in RAIL, issue 923, page 44:

Synonyms of step up to the plate

Forms of step up to the plate

third-person singular presentsteps up to the plate
present participlestepping up to the plate
past participlestepped up to the plate
paststepped up to the plate

Origin of step up to the plate

An allusion to taking one's turn at bat in baseball.

Words formed from step up to the plate

Questions about step up to the plate

What does step up to the plate mean?
Step up to the plate means to initiate action; to assume or take a responsibility.
What is step up to the plate in Bengali?
Step up to the plate in Bengali is পদক্ষেপ গ্রহণ করা. See Step up to the plate meaning in Bengali.
How do you use step up to the plate in a sentence?
However, every time you fail to do something, you make it harder to step up to the plate for the next challenge.
What part of speech is step up to the plate?
Step up to the plate is a verb.
What is the past tense of step up to the plate?
The past tense of step up to the plate is stepped up to the plate.

Words near step up to the plate in the dictionary

  1. step times
  2. step to
  3. step up
  4. step up on
  5. step up one's game
  6. step up to the plate
  7. step-
  8. step-aunt
  9. step-aunts
  10. step-brethren
  11. step-brother

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: step up to the plate (page history and authors); step up to the plate (Bengali Wiktionary) (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-step up to the plate.ogg.

Cite this entry: “step up to the plate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/step_up_to_the_plate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.