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This week’s phrasal verb is “cheat on”, and it is used when we want to talk about a person having a romantic or sexual relationship with another person who is not their romantic partner. For example:

Bill is going to divorce his wife because she was cheating on him.

I think my husband is cheating on me. Last night, he came home really late, and there was lipstick on his shirt collar.

If my boyfriend ever cheated on me, I would break up with him right away.

Peter’s girlfriend would never cheat on him. She loves him so much.

So, with this expression, it doesn’t matter if the person is married or just dating, but they must be in a romantic relationship.

Today’s phrasal verb is “put off”, and it has four meanings. The first three are a little similar, but the last one is quite different.

1. to postpone something. For example:

I can’t come to the meeting at 3:00. Can we put it off until 4:00?

The meeting has been put off until 4:00. (passive voice)

It’s raining now, so I’m going to put off my barbeque until next weekend.

The barbeque will be put off until next weekend because of the rain. (passive voice)

2. to delay doing something we don’t want to do. For example:

You should go and tell Bob that he’s fired now. You can’t put it off forever.

You should go and tell Bob that he’s fired now. It can’t be put off forever. (passive voice)

You need to clean up the basement today! You’ve been putting it off for far too long!

3. to persuade someone to agree to a delay. For example:

I can put off the boss for another two days or so, but that’s it. We’ll need to have made a decision by then.

The boss can’t be put off for much longer. We have to make a decision soon. (passive voice)

I’ll try to put off my teacher for two more days, so I can finish writing my paper.

4. for someone’s manners or behavior to make other people uncomfortable. For example:

Jerry is a very blunt person. He can really put people off with some of the comments he makes.

People can be really put off by Jerry’s bluntness. (passive voice)

The way my sister’s boyfriend was talking to her really put me off. I hope she doesn’t keep dating him.

I was really put off by the way my sister’s boyfriend was talking to her. I hope she doesn’t keeping dating him. (passive voice)

So, as you can see, we often use this phrasal verb in the passive voice. This is especially true for the last meaning. It’s very common for people to say, “I was put off by…”. If you don’t know what the adjective “blunt” means, I wrote a blog about it last year.

If you want to look for any particular words or expressions on my blog, don’t forget there is a search function at the top.

Today is Friday, so that means it’s time for another phrasal verb. This week, I’ve chosen “rip off”. It has two meanings in English:

1. to charge someone too much money for something. For example:

My hotel in Hawaii charged me $300 for an extremely small room. They really ripped me off!

I was really ripped off at my hotel in Hawaii. (passive voice)

A: I’m paying $1500 a month for this apartment.

B: Really? For this place? I think your landlord is ripping you off.

I think you’re being ripped off by your landlord. (passive voice)

I spend over $400 for this necklace for my wife. I don’t know anything about jewelry though. I hope they didn’t rip me off.

I hope I wasn’t ripped off. (passive voice)

For this meaning, we can also use “rip off” as a noun. For example:

I can’t believe I paid $20,000 for this car! What a rip off!

I don’t like eating at that restaurant because they charge way too much. It’s such a rip off!

2. for a piece of entertainment to steal an idea from something which has already been done. For example:

Everyone thought the restaurant scene in that movie was so original, but they ripped it off from an old French movie.

That scene was ripped off from an old French movie. (passive voice)

I don’t like the author, Peter Hines. He always rips his ideas off from other writers.

A: That new song by Janet Peters is totally ripping off an old song from Madonna.

B: I don’t think she’s ripping off that song. I think she’s making a tribute to it.

For this meaning, we can also use “rip off” as a noun. For example:

The scene in the restaurant is a rip off from an old French movie.

That song is such a rip off from a Madonna song a few years ago.

So, as you can see from my examples, it’s very common to use this phrasal verb with the passive voice. Please note that we usually use the preposition “from” with the second meaning of “rip off”.

Today’s phrasal verb is “pick on”, and it is used when we want to talk about one person bullying or teasing another person. For example:

When I was in junior high school, the other kids picked on me a lot. It was terrible.

I got picked on a lot when I was in junior high school. (passive voice)

A bully is picking on my son at his school! I’m so angry about it!

We shouldn’t tease Jenny about her new boyfriend. She hates it when we pick on her like that.

A: Look at Bob’s haircut! He looks so silly!

B: Stop picking on him! I don’t think his hair looks so bad.

If we use “pick on” to mean “bully”, as in the first three examples, it’s very serious. To bully someone means to physically or emotionally cause harm to another person. It is a very serious problem for many children and teenagers. However, if we use “pick on” to mean tease, as in the last two examples, it’s less serious than bullying; it’s usually meant as a joke.

The phrasal verb for this week is “mull over”, and it is used when we want to talk about thinking about an idea before making a decision about doing it or not. For example:

Thanks for telling us about your proposal. We’ll mull it over and let you know what we decide.

Right now, my wife and I are mulling over whether or not to move to another city.

I’m not sure if I should take this job or not. I’ll have to mull it over for a little while.

Don’t make a decision right now. Just mull it over and let me know later.

We can use this phrasal verb in any situation, but it’s very commonly used when talking about business decisions. The word “mull” has the meaning of thinking about something, but we never use it alone; it is always used with the word “over”.

This week’s phrasal verb is “brush off”, and we can use it in two different ways in English.

1. to not worry about someone’s negative comment about us. For example:

That guy called me fat, but I just brushed it off. I don’t care what he thinks.

I know that Ned can say awful things to you, but you should try to brush them off. It’s not worth getting upset over.

There’s a rumor going around that Bill and Sarah are getting a divorce, but they just brush it off.

2. to ignore someone or refuse to have a long conversation with them. For example:

I went up to Sue to say hello, but she just brushed me off. She’s such a snob!

What’s wrong with Paul? I asked him for his help, but he brushed me off by saying he was really busy right now.

Ever since Karen was promoted, she just brushes off all the people she used to work with. I don’t like her anymore.

So, the first meaning for “brush off” is positive, but the second meaning is negative. With the second meaning, the person who is brushing off another person can either ignore them completely, as in the first sentence, or they can quickly make an excuse to leave the conversation as soon as possible, as in the second sentence. With the third sentence, it’s unclear if Karen is ignoring people completely or just talking to them as little as possible.

Today’s phrasal verb is one which is quite slang. It is to “conk out”, and it can be used in three different ways.

1. for a machine to stop working (often an engine). For example:

My car’s engine conked out in the middle of the race, so I lost.

My lawnmower conked out last week, so I can’t cut the grass today.

2. to lose consciousness. For example:

I drank so much last night that I conked out in the taxi on my way home.

I was so tired last night! I conked out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

3. to hit someone on the head so that they lose consciousness. For example:

When I was walking home, someone conked me out and stole my wallet.

I found my neighbor on the ground last night. Someone had conked him out with a big rock.

The first two ways of using “conk out” are intransitive. This means that the phrasal verb does not take an object. The last way is separable which means that the words “conk” and “out” can be separated by a noun or a pronoun.

As I mentioned before, this expression is slang, so it is only used in casual conversations.

Today, I have a short but useful entry for you about the phrasal verb “hit off”. We use it when we want to talk about having a really good relationship with someone from the first meeting. For example:

I met my wife at a party about six years ago, and we hit it off right away.

I want you to meet my friend Jenny. I think you two will really hit it off.

I had a blind date tonight, but I’m not going to see him again. We just didn’t hit it off.

A: How did you and Ian get along?

B: We’re completely different people, so we didn’t really hit it off.

Please note that we always put the word “it” in the middle. Also, as you can see from my examples, we can use this in both positive and negative sentences. It can be used to talk about both romantic and non-romantic relationships.

I have a fun phrasal verb for you today. It’s to “monkey around with” something. We use it when we want to talk about a person who tries to fix a machine that is broken without giving it a serious effort. For example:

A: My computer isn’t working properly.

B: Ok. I’ll monkey around with it later and see if I can find the problem.

If you want me to, I’ll monkey around with your car and try to fix it. I’m pretty good with cars.

My printer was wasn’t working so I started monkeying around with it, and I actually got it working again! I was so impressed with myself!

This expression is quite casual, so we only use it in conversations with friends or people we are close to. When we use “monkey around with”, it means that the person doesn’t give it a serious effort because they are not an expert at fixing things. Therefore, professional repair people would never use this expression because they are trained to fix things. It’s only people who don’t really know how to fix things who would say “monkey around with”.

Today’s phrasal verb is “fight off”, and it has two different meanings.

1. for someone to defend themselves against an attacker and make them run away. For example:

I read in the newspaper about a woman who was attacked in her home, but she was able to fight the guy off.

I think you should take a self defense class. A lot of people have been attacked lately, and you should learn how to fight off any attackers.

The Spanish attacked England a long time ago, but the English fought them off.

2. for someone to do something in order to prevent an illness in the beginning stages from becoming too serious. For example:

I think I’m catching a cold. I’m going to take some medicine tonight and go to bed early so I can fight it off.

If you start to get flu symptoms, you should drink this. It will help you fight off the flu.

I tried to fight off my cold by taking medicine and drinking juice, but it didn’t work. It’s become much worse now.

With the first meaning of “fight off”, it can be used for attacks against individual people or against countries such as in a war situation.

With the second meaning, it’s almost always used to talk about a cold or the flu, but we don’t use it to talk about very serious diseases like cancer.