Phrasal Verb Dictionary: D

Phrasal verbs are a common English verb form that consist of a verb followed by a p-word that functions as a particle. To learn more about some of the most common phrasal verbs in the English language, click on a letter in the following menu to browse the Phrasal Verb Dictionary in alphabetical order.

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Note: When a word entry includes a p-word enclosed in parentheses, the phrasal verb is a phrasal-prepositional verb.

Phrasal Verb	Definition	Category	Example
dawn on	be realized	inseparable transitive	The answer to my problem dawned on me.
deliver on	complete successfully	inseparable transitive	He always delivers on his promises.
diddle around	waste time	intransitive	He diddle around instead of finishing his homework.
die away	diminish	intransitive	The party died away by midnight.
die down	diminish	intransitive	The controversy died down last week.
die off	become extinct	intransitive	The dodo bird died off centuries ago.
die out	become extinct	intransitive	The native species died out after the introduction of foreign plants.
dig in	start, begin	intransitive	Dig in before the food gets cold.
dig into	start, begin	inseparable transitive	She dug into the problem immediately.
dig up	discover something new	separable transitive	The PI dug up some new information.
disagree with	cause to feel sick	inseparable transitive	Beans disagree with me.
dive in	start, begin	intransitive	Dive in before the soup gets cold.
dive into	start, begin	inseparable transitive	She dove into the problem immediately.
divide off	separate	separable transitive	Divide the room off into fourths.
divide up	separate	separable transitive	The judges divided the prize up.
divvy out	separate, share	separable transitive	He will divvy the proceeds from the sale out.
divvy up	separate, share	separable transitive	He will divvy the proceeds from the sale up.
do away with	abolish	inseparable intransitive	The administration should do away with the conservative dress code.
do in	make extremely tired, destroy, kill	separable transitive	Any more bad news will do me in.
do over	repeat	separable transitive	Do the report over.
do up	fasten, secure, improve	separable transitive	Do up your shoelace before you trip.
doll up	make fancier	separable transitive	She dolled herself up before the party.
double back	turn around and repeat	intransitive	The hikers doubled back after hearing a strange cry.
doze off	fall asleep	intransitive	The old man dozed off in his chair.
drag down	make feel bad	separable intransitive	He always drags me down.
draw in	become involved	separable transitive	The nightlife drew me in.
draw on	continue	intransitive	The speech drew on forever.
draw up	create	separable transitive	I can draw a new contract up immediately.
dream up	create, invent	separable transitive	She dream up a new product during the meeting.
dredge up	mention something unpleasant from the past	separable transitive	He dredged up a difficult time in my life.
dress down	dress casually	intransitive	Employees may dress down on weekends.
dress up	dress elegantly	intransitive	Grandma always dresses up for church.
drift off	gradually fall asleep	intransitive	The baby drifted off to the lull of traffic.
drink to	celebrate something	inseparable transitive	I will drink to that!
drive back	repel, repulse	separable transitive	The army drove the enemy back.
drone on	talk incessantly	intransitive	The teacher often drones on during lectures.
drone on about	talk incessantly about something	inseparable intransitive	She droned on about her boring trip to the mall.
drop by	visit	intransitive	Feel free to drop by any time.
drop in	visit unexpectedly	intransitive	My uncle dropped in yesterday morning.
drop in on	visit unexpectedly	inseparable transitive	My uncle dropped in on use yesterday morning.
drop out	quit	intransitive	Our second partner dropped out after our first failure.
drop out of	quit	inseparable transitive	She dropped out of the race.
drown out	prevent from hearing or noticing	separable transitive	The jackhammers drowned out the sound of traffic.
drum up	increase interest in something	separable transitive	Can you drum up some support?
dry up	disappear, vanish	intransitive	My desire to participate has dried up.
dwell on	think, speak, or write about at length	inseparable transitive	Do not dwell on the past.