Quote
1. Quote - Listen to the quote and guess what the slang means.
“Yeah, when you make a film and you got a team like Tommy Lee Jones and Barry Sonnenfeld and Steven Spielberg… it’s like playing [basketball] with Shaq. You gotta step up, you gotta do your thing. I feel real good. The movie is funny.”
- Will Smith, rapper and actor, talking about the movie Men in Black 2.
Definition
1. Definition - Study the definition.
do one’s best, perform to the best of one’s abilities, work hard
2. Use - Learn how the slang is used.
When you “step up,” you do something as well as you can do it. You try as hard as you can to succeed. For example, if you have an important test in school, you better step up to make sure that you pass the test. Or, if you’re playing a very important sports game, you need to step up if you want to win.
You can use step up to describe any situation in which you need to do your best. Or, if you see someone doing very well, you could say that s/he is really stepping up.
Examples
1. Examples - Hear some example sentences.
””Jeff, if you want to win this match you have to step up. You can’t be lazy.”“
””Michael Jordan was a great basketball player because he always stepped up his game when he needed to.”“
””If you don’t step it up, you’re going to fail this class. You’re not working hard enough.”“
””My brother has always been successful because he knows how to step up when it’s important.”“
Winners
1. Winners - See who guessed the slang definition correctly.
Step up means to catch up with.
by Joyce (Toronto)
I guess step up maybe means “improve oneself”, and “work hard to make progress”
by Violet