beef up

phrasal verb

beefed up; beefing up; beefs up

informal

: to add weight, strength, or power to (something)

Security around the city will be beefed up during the event.

a politician looking to beef his image up

Examples of beef up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The new division’s first initiative aims to beef up content tied to History.com. —Brian Steinberg, Variety, 5 Mar. 2025

Europe’s leaders rallied around Ukraine as the union pledged to beef up defense spending. —Ryan Hogg, Fortune Europe, 4 Mar. 2025

As a result, investors in European defense companies have been expecting larger orders, aimed at beefing up the region’s defenses. —Anna Cooban, CNN, 3 Mar. 2025

Security at the Lefkow home — including a camera mounted outside the home and guards posted on the block in unmarked cars — had been beefed up after the allegations against Hale emerged in January 2003. —Kori Rumore, Chicago Tribune, 28 Feb. 2025

Rhymes for beef up

• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup
• markup