step up

phrasal verbphr v

a) INCREASE IN ACTIVITY, FEELINGS ETC step something ↔ up to increase the amount of an activity or the speed of a process in order to improve a situation 使增加；使上升；使加快

The health department is stepping up efforts to reduce teenage smoking.

卫生部门正加大力度减少青少年吸烟人数。

stepped-up security at airports

升级了的机场安全措施

b) (also step up to the plate) especially American EnglishAmE to agree to help someone or to be responsible for doing something 采取行动〔帮助某人或负责某事〕

Residents will have to step up if they want to rid this area of crime.

居民如果想消除本地区的犯罪现象就必须行动起来。

Examples from the Corpus

step up• Her ankles can not handle the slope, and so she turns around, walking backward, tiny three-inch steps.• I stepped right up and gestured in the rain; they consulted.• A flight of steps leads up from the courtyard and there is entry also from the house end.• A flight of steps goes up the left-hand side of the gallery.• It was the first important step in breaking up the pack.• Both moves were seen as tentative steps towards opening up the political system.• They are sitting on the wooden steps that lead up to the front porch of their house.• The steps leading up to the launch of a new product or product line are just as numerous.

step upChinese