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measure up to meaning and examples

2025-09-20

Meaning

  • Measure up to means to be good enough, to reach the required standard, or to be equal to someone’s expectations or comparison.

Grammar and Usage

  • Part of speech: phrasal verb

  • Structure:

    • measure up to + noun/pronoun
    • Often used in negative or comparative contexts.

  • Typical use: talking about whether someone or something meets expectations, standards, or comparisons.

Common Phrases

  • measure up to expectations
  • measure up to standards
  • measure up to someone’s reputation
  • measure up to the challenge

Collocations

  • verbs + measure up to: fail to, try to, struggle to
  • nouns + measure up to: expectations, standards, reputation, challenge, ideal

Examples

  1. The new employee didn’t measure up to the manager’s expectations.
  2. This restaurant doesn’t measure up to the reviews I read online.
  3. She worked hard to measure up to her parents’ standards.
  4. The sequel didn’t measure up to the original movie.
  5. He felt he could never measure up to his older brother’s success.
  6. The product failed to measure up to industry standards.
  7. It’s difficult to measure up to such high expectations.
  • live up to
  • meet
  • match
  • be on a par with
  • compare with

Antonym

  • fall short of
  • fail to meet
  • not live up to