idiom · neutral
roll up one's sleeves
UK/rəʊl ʌp wʌnz sliːvz/US/roʊl ʌp wʌnz sliːvz/roll·up·one's·SLEEVES
to prepare to work hard on a task, usually a practical or difficult one
Examples
“After the audit report came out, the team rolled up their sleeves and cleared the backlog.”
“If we want the festival to run smoothly, everyone will need to roll up their sleeves this weekend.”
“The new manager encouraged staff to roll up their sleeves and suggest practical fixes.”
Band 8 sentence
“Faced with a tight deadline the whole office rolled up their sleeves and completed the project ahead of schedule.”
Collocations
- roll up your sleeves and get to work
- roll up their sleeves to tackle
Word family
Common mistakes
roll up your sleeve→roll up one's sleeves
roll up sleeves→roll up one's sleeves
Say it for a higher band
5start working→6get to work→7+roll up one's sleeves
Synonyms
get stuck in
get your hands dirty
Easily confused
get your hands dirty
“They weren’t afraid to get their hands dirty to finish the renovation.”
Related words
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In Work
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