size up

verb, noun — 3 senses

size up

verbalso spelled size-up

1

Idiomatic To evaluate; to estimate or anticipate the magnitude, difficulty, or strength of something.

It's a good idea for boxers to size up their opponents before their matches.
Before we can begin to size up the problem, we'll need more information.

2 more examples

She approaches like she’s sizing them up. Five boys. Unarmed. A pile of swords over there. Ed Sheeran is there, but that’s not even the surprise.2017 July 16, Brandon Nowalk, “Chickens and dragons come home to roost on Game Of Thrones (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club:
The Century We had to size up our fellow legislators.

2

To wear a larger size of clothing.

This shirt runs tight, so you should size up.

Related terms: weigh up

size-up

noun

Etymology Deverbal from size up.

1

Firefighting, Government The initial evaluation of an incident and how to deal with it.

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — authors: page histories for size up and size-up.