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stir up meaning and examples

2025-10-03

Meaning

“Stir up” is a phrasal verb that means:

  1. To cause strong feelings or emotions, often negative ones such as anger, trouble, or excitement.
  2. To provoke or encourage an action, reaction, or situation.
  3. To mix something by stirring (literal meaning).

Grammar and Usage

  • Part of speech: Phrasal verb

  • Transitive (requires an object): stir up trouble, stir up memories

  • Typical structure:

    • stir up + noun
    • stir sb up

Common Phrases

  • stir up trouble
  • stir up emotions
  • stir up a debate
  • stir up memories
  • stir up conflict

Collocations

  • Verb + stir up: try to stir up, deliberately stir up
  • Noun + stir up: stir up anger, stir up excitement, stir up curiosity
  • Adverb + stir up: intentionally stir up, politically stir up

Examples

  1. The politician’s speech stirred up anger among the crowd.
  2. His comment stirred up a heated debate on social media.
  3. The movie stirred up old memories of my childhood.
  4. The scandal stirred up controversy in the community.
  5. She stirred up trouble by spreading false rumors.
  6. The announcement stirred up excitement among the fans.
  7. Don’t stir up conflict where it doesn’t exist.
  • provoke
  • incite
  • arouse
  • trigger
  • ignite
  • fuel

Antonym

  • calm down
  • settle
  • soothe
  • pacify