Phrasal Verbs Lesson 5

Common Phrasal Verbs

These phrasal verbs are commonly found in high-level academic writing, formal reports, legal discussions, and professional analysis.

Word	Meaning	Sample Sentence
Account for	explain or justify	The report accounts for all discrepancies.
Bear out	confirm or support with evidence	The data bears out the initial hypothesis.
Boil over	reach an emotional breaking point	Tensions boiled over during negotiations.
Break with	end a tradition or practice	The company broke with past policies.
Brush aside	dismiss as unimportant	He brushed aside their concerns.
Call into question	doubt or challenge	The scandal called his integrity into question.
Carry through	complete successfully	She carried through the reform plan.
Clamp onto	attach firmly or focus intensely	The media clamped onto the controversy.
Come about	happen or occur	The change came about unexpectedly.
Crack down on	enforce rules strictly	The state cracked down on corruption.
Cut across	affect multiple areas	The issue cuts across social classes.
Dig into	examine closely	The committee dug into the finances.
Drift apart	gradually lose connection	The partners drifted apart over time.
Edge out	defeat narrowly	She edged out her rival in the final vote.
Fall apart	break down or fail	The agreement fell apart quickly.
Get at	suggest or imply	What exactly are you getting at?
Go hand in hand with	be closely connected	Growth goes hand in hand with risk.
Hold back from	hesitate or restrain	She held back from making a comment.
Jump to conclusions	decide too quickly	Don’t jump to conclusions without facts.
Keep at	continue persistently	If you keep at it, you’ll succeed.
Leave out	omit or exclude	Important details were left out.
Make out	understand or interpret	It’s hard to make out his argument.
Move toward	progress in a direction	The policy moves toward sustainability.
Narrow down	reduce choices	We narrowed down the candidates.
Pan out	turn out well	The investment panned out eventually.
Play out	develop over time	We must see how events play out.
Push through	force completion	The bill was pushed through parliament.
Rule out	eliminate as a possibility	We cannot rule out further delays.
Set aside	reserve or ignore temporarily	Funds were set aside for emergencies.
Slow down	reduce pace or intensity	The economy is slowing down.
Sort out	resolve or organize	The issue must be sorted out.
Stand out	be clearly noticeable	Her analysis stands out.
Stick to	adhere to rules or plans	They stuck to the agreement.
Turn out	result in a particular way	The plan turned out successful.
Wear down	gradually weaken	Pressure wore down resistance.
Work toward	aim to achieve	The team is working toward reform.