English Phrasal Verbs (282/365) - Build Something/Someone Up / Build Up Something/Someone

A time lapse of a storm building up

To build something/someone up / build up something/someone means

A) to gradually increase something or make it stronger, to increase to become stronger

Example sentence:

• A storm is building up in the North Sea

B) to encourage someone

Example sentence:

• The military tears down its recruits first to build them up next. The idea is to construct a new identity for them.

C) to advertise something/someone

• A huge ad campaign was launched to build up the show but it wasn't really that good after all.

D) to develop an area as in build buildings in it

• The area was built over the course of a decade.