To improve your behaviour, fitness, or performance; or to develop or progress in a particular way.
To start doing better and behaving or performing the way you should.
3 meanings, ordered from most common to least. Color-coded by CEFR level.
To improve your behaviour, performance, or fitness to the required standard.
"The coach warned the squad that they needed to shape up before the tournament."
Shape up or ship out.
— Common American English idiom, widely used in military and workplace contexts from at least the mid-20th century.
To develop or progress in a particular way; to show signs of how something will turn out.
"How is the new project shaping up? Are you on schedule?"
To get into good physical condition through exercise and diet.
"She joined a gym and started eating better to shape up before the summer."
To take on a definite, proper shape — like clay being moulded into a correct form.
To start doing better and behaving or performing the way you should.
Commonly used as a direct command — 'You need to shape up!' Associated with the phrase 'shape up or ship out' (improve or leave). Also used in a neutral sense to describe how something is progressing — 'How is the project shaping up?'
Natural word combinations native speakers use most often.
The five tense forms you'll use most often.
Listen to native speakers using "shape up" in real YouTube videos — click a clip to watch it on Looplines.
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