phrasal verb · informal
get up to
/ɡet ʌp tuː/GET·UP·to
speaking
do something, especially something slightly bad or surprising
Examples
“What did you get up to at the weekend?”
“The kids are always getting up to mischief.”
“He got up to some interesting research during his internship.”
Band 8 sentence
“When I asked my nephew what he'd been doing, he hesitated — kids never admit what they get up to.”
Collocations
- get up to mischief
- what did you get up to
Word family
get up to (v) verbgot up to (past) verbgetting up to (v-ing) verb
Common mistakes
What did you get to on weekend?→What did you get up to at the weekend?
They got up to the homework→They got on with the homework
Say it for a higher band
5do→6mess about→7+get up to
Synonyms
do
mess about
Easily confused
get on with
“She's getting on well with her colleagues.”
get down to
“Let's get down to business.”
Related words
Learn this word with the rest of its set, and get reminded at the right time.
In get …
Learn it with its set