roll up one's sleeves

English

Pronunciation

Audio (AU) (file)

Verb

roll up one's sleeves (third-person singular simple present rolls up one's sleeves, present participle rolling up one's sleeves, simple past and past participle rolled up one's sleeves)

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see roll,‎ up,‎ one's,‎ sleeves.
(idiomatic) To prepare to work.
- 2011 October 1, Phil Dawkes quoting Steve Bruce, “Sunderland 2 - 2 West Brom”, in BBC Sport‎:
  "We could quite easily have folded today but thankfully they rolled up their sleeves and got back into it. We could even have won it. We had a couple of great opportunities but we just ran out of juice."

Synonyms

belly up to the bar
get down to brass tacks
get one's act together
pull one's socks up
shape up

Translations

roll one's sleeves up

Azerbaijani: qollarını çırmalamaq, qollarını çırmamaq
Chinese:
Mandarin: 捲起袖子／卷起袖子 (juǎnqǐ xiùzi)
Danish: smøge ærmerne op
Dutch: de mouwen opstropen
Finnish: kääriä hihat
French: retrousser ses manches (fr)
Galician: arremangar
German: Ärmel hochkrempeln
Hungarian: feltűri az inge ujját, feltűri az ingujját
Icelandic: bretta upp ermarnar
Italian: rimboccarsi le maniche, smanicarsi
Japanese: 腕まくりする (うでまくりする, udemakuri suru)
Polish: zakasać rękawy (pl) impf
Portuguese: arregaçar as mangas
Russian: засучи́ть рукава́ (ru) pf (zasučítʹ rukavá), заката́ть рукава́ pf (zakatátʹ rukavá)
Serbo-Croatian: zasuču rukavi
Spanish: arremangarse (es)
Swedish: kavla upp ärmarna

prepare to work