Akademik

beat up

verb

1. give a beating to; subject to a beating, either as a punishment or as an act of aggression

- Thugs beat him up when he walked down the street late at night

- The teacher used to beat the students

• Derivationally related forms: ↑beating (for: ↑beat)

• Hyponyms:

• Entailment: ↑hit

• Verb Frames:

- Somebody ——s somebody

- They want to beat up the prisoners

2. gather

- drum up support

• Syn: ↑drum up, ↑rally

• Hypernyms: ↑collect, ↑pull in

• Verb Frames:

- Somebody ——s something

- Something ——s something

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beat up [phrasal verb]

beat up (someone) or beat (someone) up : to hurt or injure (someone) by hitting

A gang of bullies threatened to beat him up.

He was beaten up badly by the bullies.

— sometimes used figuratively

a politician who is getting beat/beaten up by liberal/conservative critics

He's been beating himself up [=he has been harshly blaming or criticizing himself] because of the failure of his marriage.