chat up
verb
Simple meaning
To talk to in a friendly, open, or casual way, sometimes also in a charming or affected way, usually to curry favor.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
chatuhpSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtʃæˈtʌp
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
transitiveidiomatic
To talk to (someone) in a friendly, open, or casual manner, sometimes also in a charming or affected manner, usually to curry favor, and sometimes flirtatiously with the intention of establishing a romantic or sexual encounter or relationship with that person.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: To talk to (someone) in a friendly, open, or casual manner, sometimes also in a charming or affected manner, usually to curry favor, and sometimes flirtatiously with the intention of establishing a romantic or sexual encounter or relationship with that person.
Used this way, chat up is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It turns up most in relationships contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Slightly formal
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Beautiful or graceful
- Usage feel
- Reflective and slightly elevated
Where it naturally appears
- Relationships
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.