brush up | Idiomator

Meaning: To paint, or make clean or bright with a brush.April 10, 1706,Alexander Pope, letter toWilliam WycherleyYou have commissioned me to paint your shop, and I have done my best tobrushyouuplike your neighbours.; (idiomatic)Toreview; toimprovean existing butrustyor underdevelopedskill.Synonym:rub upI'll need tobrush up(on) my Greek before my trip to Athens.2010December 7, J.A., “Travel in style”, inThe Economist‎[1]:How many will be rich enough to travel in style is difficult to know—but already 30% of the guests at the very expensive Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong are from mainland China. Reception staff around the world had better startbrushing uptheir Mandarin language skills.; (slang,transitive)To beat up, annoy or insult (someone).

Examples:

EN: You wanna brush up on your Greek, Jamison.
ES: Tiene que repasar el griego, Jamison.
EN: Well, get a Greek and brush up on him.
ES: Bueno, busque un griego y péguele un repaso.
EN: Yeah.Just brush up that light a little bit, and then we'll be through.
ES: Sí, lustre ese faro un poco y hemos terminado.
EN: Would you help me brush up a little?
ES: No querrás recordarme algunos pasos, ¿verdad?
EN: I think we can brush up the number in a couple of other places too.
ES: Creo que podemos mejorar en otras partes.
EN: They'll be all right after you brush up some of the rough spots for us.
ES: Todo saldrá bien después de que pulamos algunas cosillas.
EN: Plenty of time in New York to brush up the old tango.
ES: Sobra tiempo para ensayar el viejo tango.
EN: You better brush up, you look terrible.
ES: Mejor arréglate. Luces pésimo.
EN: You better brush up on your sign language.
ES: Será mejor que practiques su lenguaje de señas.
EN: Well, before I went on the stage, I took shorthand and typing and I could brush up on it.
ES: Antes de dedicarme al teatro, estudié... taquigrafía y mecanografía y podría perfeccionarlo.
EN: I brush up on my music un petit peu.
ES: Repaso mi música un petit peu.
EN: Well, Mother, I'm going to have to go upstairs, just, sort of, brush up a bit and I'd like to have a word with you, Mr McCassin.
ES: Bueno, mamá, voy a subir a arreglarme un poco. Y quiero hablar un momento con usted, Sr. McCassin.
EN: I haven't had time to brush up or do a thing.
ES: He estado tan ocupado que no he tenido ni un minuto.
EN: Dora, I don't like to mention this but don't you think you should brush up on your rumba a little bit?
ES: Dora, no lo comentes pero creo que debes mejorar un poco tu modo de rumbear.
EN: Yes, I can type, some. I could brush up on it.
ES: Puedo escribir a máquina, pero debería perfeccionarme.

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).