Meaning
“Size up” means to carefully observe or assess someone or something in order to form a judgment or opinion. It often implies quickly evaluating a situation, a person’s ability, or an object’s value.
Grammar and Usage
- Part of speech: Phrasal verb (transitive)
- Structure: size up + object
- It is commonly used when making judgments or assessments about people, situations, or things.
Examples of structures:
- size up a person
- size up a situation
- size up the competition
Common Phrases
- size up the situation = evaluate the circumstances before acting
- size up the competition = assess rivals’ strengths and weaknesses
- size someone up = judge someone’s character, ability, or intentions
Collocations
- quickly size up
- try to size up
- ability to size up
- size up the room
- size up the risks
Examples
- The manager quickly sized up the situation before making a decision.
- He tried to size up his opponent before the boxing match started.
- Before investing, she carefully sized up the risks involved.
- It only took her a few minutes to size up the new team member.
- The general sized up the battlefield before launching the attack.
- I could tell he was sizing me up when we first met.
- The company spent weeks sizing up the competition before launching their product.
- The detective sized up the witness with a sharp look.
Synonyms or Related
- evaluate
- assess
- appraise
- judge
- weigh up
- analyze
Antonym
- misjudge
- overlook
- ignore