work sb up
— phrasal verb with work uk/wɜːk/us/wɝːk/verb
to make yourself or another person feel upset or feel strong emotions:
Try not to work yourself up about the exams.
Nationalist speeches worked the crowd up into a frenzy.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Making people sad, shocked and upset
- aback
- amiss
- appal
- be laughing on the other side of your face idiom
- bite
- burn
- haunt
- hit/touch a (raw) nerve idiom
- horrify
- hurt sb's feelings idiom
- hurtful
- laugh
- mess
- nose
- shake
- take sb aback
- tear sb apart
- tear sb's heart out idiom
- torture
- traumatize
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