Phrasal verbs beginning with letter E
Here is a list of phrasal verbs beginning with letter E.
Ease off
When pain or discomfort eases off, it becomes less severe.
- The tablets couldn’t ease off the pain.
- The heavy rain showed no sign of easing off, so we stayed indoors.
Ease up has the same meaning as ease off.
Eat away
When A eats B away, A destroys B or makes it less strong, prominent or important.
- Labor unrest has been eating away our profits.
Eat in / eat out
To eat in is to eat at home. To eat out is to eat in a restaurant.
- I thought we could eat out tonight.
- I don’t feel like going out. I would rather eat in tonight.
Eat up
To eat something up is to consume it.
- ‘Where are the cookies?’ ‘I ate them up.’
If a car eats up fuel, it consumes too much fuel.
- My car eats up petrol. I should buy a more fuel-efficient one.
When mosquitoes eat you up, they bite you all over.
- Don’t forget to apply some insect repellant cream when you go hiking. Otherwise, the bugs will eat you up.
When an idea eats you up, it becomes an obsession.
- The desire to become an actress was eating her up.
Egg on
To egg somebody on is to encourage them to do something (silly).
- They egged him on to jump across the stream.
Eke out
To eke something out is to make it last longer.
- We will need to develop renewable energy sources if we want to eke out our natural resources.
To eke out a living is to earn enough to live.
- It simply isn’t easy to eke out a living with a part time job.
End up
This is an inseparable phrasal verb. To end up somewhere is to end there after a series of events.
- He frequently had trouble with the law so when he ended up in prison nobody was surprised.
- He ended up marrying his ex-girlfriend.
Explain away
To explain something away is to give an excuse for something you have done.
- He couldn’t explain away his absence from work.
Eye up
To eye somebody up is to look at them in a certain way that shows you are interested in them.
Sally knew Martin was eyeing her up, but she chose to ignore him.
