STIR UP

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does stir up mean? 

• STIR UP (verb)
  The verb STIR UP has 4 senses:

1. try to stir up public opinion

2. arouse or excite feelings and passions

3. change the arrangement or position of

4. provoke or stir up

  Familiarity information: STIR UP used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• STIR UP (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Try to stir up public opinion

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

agitate; foment; stir up

Hypernyms (to "stir up" is one way to...):

provoke; stimulate (provide the needed stimulus for)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "stir up"):

rumpus (cause a disturbance)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sense 2

Meaning:

Arouse or excite feelings and passions

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

fire up; heat; ignite; inflame; stir up; wake

Context example:

Wake old feelings of hatred

Hypernyms (to "stir up" is one way to...):

arouse; elicit; enkindle; evoke; fire; kindle; provoke; raise (call forth (emotions, feelings, and responses))

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "stir up"):

ferment (work up into agitation or excitement)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Change the arrangement or position of

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

agitate; commove; disturb; raise up; shake up; stir up; vex

Hypernyms (to "stir up" is one way to...):

displace; move (cause to move or shift into a new position or place, both in a concrete and in an abstract sense)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "stir up"):

beat; scramble (stir vigorously)

toss (agitate)

rile; roil (make turbid by stirring up the sediments of)

poke (stir by poking)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Provoke or stir up

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

incite; instigate; set off; stir up

Context example:

set off great unrest among the people

Hypernyms (to "stir up" is one way to...):

provoke; stimulate (provide the needed stimulus for)

Cause:

act; move (perform an action, or work out or perform (an action))

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "stir up"):

raise (activate or stir up)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s somebody to INFINITIVE

 Context examples 

You go and surprise your father, and I'll stir up old Brooke.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Mars, the little energetic action-hero planet, will stir up lots of new business for you, for Mars is in your sixth house of work projects, in ideal angle to that full moon.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

I'll get admitted there, and I'll stir up mutiny; and you, three-tailed bashaw as you are, sir, shall in a trice find yourself fettered amongst our hands: nor will I, for one, consent to cut your bonds till you have signed a charter, the most liberal that despot ever yet conferred.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Occasionally a line of grey cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-grey men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud which screens their obscure operations from your sight.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)