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Phrasal Verbs - L
Legend: (transitive/intransitive separable/inseparable)
To learn or review these properties of phrasal verbs, you can check out the summary here.
laugh off (ts) - to laugh or act like something is not serious or not important
After we talked more, we laughed off our initial misunderstanding.
“I think it is important to see the humor in life and laugh off certain situations,” she said.
I laughed off the rumors that I had really messed up the project and instead my team completed the project on time and the customer was very happy.
The book inspires people to laugh off their worries and enjoy life to the fullest.
He laid into the teenagers for making too much noise.
lay into (ti) - strongly criticize
The manager really laid into the employee for carelessly dropping and breaking some products.
The organization laid into the construction company for building unsafe homes.
My father laid into me for skipping class.
Jen is going to lay into Scott when she finds out that he ate the cake that she baked for the party tomorrow.
lay off
(ts) - fire workers not because they did something wrong, but in order to save the company money or because the company is going out of business
The car company will lay off 400 workers in the next three months.
The media company is laying off 5% of its workforce by June.
The university laid off 50 professors before the upcoming academic year.
(ti) stop using or doing something, stop criticizing or yelling at someone
I really need to lay off the cigarettes. Smoking is causing me so many breathing problems.
Kevin’s friends think that he should lay off the beer. When he gets drunk, he falls a lot.
Nicole wants to lay off french fries as she is preparing to run in a marathon next week.
~ ~ They left out some data.
leave out (ts) - not include, omit
“I would like a Greek salad, but please leave out the olives,” she said.
“Hmmm, the company left out its name on the job posting,” said James. “That’s not good.”
The study shows that people with different cultural backgrounds are often left out of psychology research.
The report left out a lot of interesting details about product design.
let down (ts) - disappoint
The company said that it had let down customers and would give all of them a refund.
The subway system is letting down passengers everyday with long wait times and overcrowded platforms.
“After losing the competition, I felt like I let myself down,” he said.
“The state is letting down patients by not passing the bill to lower drug prices,” the health advocate said.
look over (ts) - to examine something, often quickly
~ ~ She looked over the social media data.
“I looked over your resume and saw some spelling mistakes,” she said.
When you look over decades of research on air pollution and health, you can see a clear pattern.
Zak looked over Jen’s report and said it was excellent.
Maria and I looked over the meeting agenda and we want to add a couple more topics.
Practice
You can practice using these phrasal verbs by doing the exercises below!
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