bruise up

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

bruise up (third-person singular simple present bruises up, present participle bruising up, simple past and past participle bruised up)

1. (transitive) To cause bruises to appear, usually by beating or battering.
2. (intransitive) To show or get bruises.
   • 2021, William Ian Miller, “The Law of Conservation of Good Things”, in Outrageous Fortune: Gloomy Reflections on Luck and Life, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 34:

     Instead, we must find an unworthy substitute for the defeat of a foe in that small grin we quickly suppress when we learn that a beheadphoned texter got hit by a car—no, not seriously injured, just bruised up enough to give him a wake-up call.