Phrasal Verb Dictionary: R

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
rack up	incur a large amount	separable transitive	She racked the charges up on her credit card.
raffle off	give away in a lottery	separable transitive	The company raffled the car off.
rail against	complain angrily about	inseparable transitive	My co-worked railed against the new policy.
rail at	complain angrily about	inseparable transitive	The hero railed at the injustice.
rain down	occur suddenly and in a large amount	inseparable transitive	Our boss rained down bad news this afternoon.
rake in	earn or bring in a large amount	separable transitive	He rakes in the big bucks.
rake up	dredge up, bring up	separable transitive	She always rakes the past up.
rake up	acquire	separable transitive	How many donations did you rake up?
rally around	attempt to help	inseparable transitive	We rallied around the sick girl.
ramble on (about)	talk or write incessantly and for a long time	intransitive	My mother rambles on about food prices.
rat on	tattle	inseparable transitive	My brother ratted on me to our parents.
ration out	divide into portions	separable transitive	The camp leader rationed the food out.
rattle off	list	separable transitive	He rattled the instructions off.
rattle on (about)	talk for a long time	intransitive	She rattled on about politics.
rattle through	speak or do quickly to finish as soon as possible	inseparable transitive	He rattled through his homework.
reach down	lower	separable transitive	Can you reach those books down to me?
reach out	stretch	separable transitive	She reached her arm out.
reach up	stretch in an upwards motion	separable transitive	He reached his arm up.
read back	review a piece of writing	separable transitive	She read her essay back to herself.
read off	read, recite	separable transitive	The machine read the numbers off.
read over	review	separable transitive	My boss read my proposal over.
read through	review	separable transitive	I read your report through.
read up on	research, review	inseparable transitive	You should read up on verb tenses.
rear up	lift, raise	separable transitive	The horse reared its front legs up.
reason out	think about carefully	separable transitive	You can reason it out.
reason with	attempt to persuade	inseparable transitive	You cannot reason with her.
reckon on	plan, consider	inseparable transitive	I did not reckon on her coming.
reckon with	deal with	inseparable transitive	She must reckon with me.
reel in	attract	separable transitive	He reeled a beautiful woman in with his charm.
reel off	list quickly	separable transitive	She reeled the directions off.
rein in	restrain, reduce, decrease, temper, curb	separable transitive	Can you rein your rowdy children in?
rent out	loan, lend	separable transitive	The library rents laptops out.
rest up	rest, take a break	intransitive	The old man rested up.
result in	cause	inseparable transitive	Power outages result in chaos.
rev up	make more active	separable transitive	The opening act revved the audience up.
revel in	enjoy	inseparable transitive	He revels in chaos.
revert to	resume, store	inseparable transitive	She reverted to her bad behavior.
ride out	continue despite difficulties	separable transitive	The fishermen rode the storm out.
ride up	gradually raise or increase	intransitive	Her underwear rides up.
riffle through	search quickly	inseparable transitive	She riffled through the papers.
rig up	make a quick fix	separable transitive	He rigged a tent up with an old tarp.
ring up	telephone	separable transitive	Can you ring me up tonight?
rinse off	rinse	separable transitive	He rinsed the dishes off.
rinse out	rinse	separable transitive	She rinsed the dirty diaper out.
rip into	criticize	inseparable transitive	He really ripped into her.
rip off	swindle	separable transitive	The seller ripped me off.
rip up	destroy	separable transitive	The dog ripped the magazine up.
rise above	surmount, overcome, conquer	inseparable transitive	She rose above her checkered past.
rise up	lift, increase	intransitive	The hero rose up to defeat the enemy.
roll back	decrease	separable transitive	The store rolled its prices back.
roll in	bring, happen, occur, acquire	separable transitive	The car lot rolled the new models in just as the storm rolled in.
roll out	unfold, happen, prepare	separable transitive	The company rolled the new product out last year.
roll over	flip to a different side	separable transitive	The mother rolled her baby over.
roll up	wrap	separable transitive	She rolled the blankets up.
roll up	finish	separable transitive	He rolled his report up.
root around (for)	search for	intransitive	The spy rooted around for the truth.
root for	show support	inseparable transitive	The cheerleaders rooted for the team.
root out	get rid of	separable transitive	The teacher rooted the poor students out.
rope in	coerce	separable transitive	He roped me in to his scheme.
rope off	separate, divide	separable transitive	The caterer roped the room off.
rough up	hurt	separable transitive	The little boy roughed the bully up.
rough in	add in without detail	separable transitive	The architect roughed a second bathroom in.
round down	go down to the nearest whole number	separable transitive	The students round the estimates down.
round off	finish in a satisfactory way	separable transitive	The teachers rounded the year off right.
round on	suddenly turn on	inseparable transitive	My best friend rounded on me.
round out	make more complete	separable transitive	I rounded my studies out.
round up	go up to the nearest whole number	separable transitive	The banker rounded the profits up.
rub down	make clean, massage	separable transitive	The trainer rubbed her down after her workout.
rub in	continue talking about or bringing	separable transitive	He keeps rubbing my mistakes in.
rub off	remove (usually by rubbing), transfer	separable transitive	She rubbed the sticker off.
rub out	remove, erase	separable transitive	He rubbed the typo out.
ruffle up	disturb	separable transitive	She ruffled my feathers up.
rule out	decide something is not suitable, prevent from happening	separable transitive	The umpire ruled the hit out.
rule out	eliminate	separable transitive	The doctors ruled cancer out.
run across	find or meet unexpectedly	inseparable transitive	She ran across the missing checks.
run against	compete	inseparable transitive	He ran against her for president.
run away (from)	leave, escape	intransitive	She ran away from home as a teenager.
run down	review	separable transitive	Can you run down the list one more time?
run down	criticize	separable transitive	The boss runs new employees down.
run down	hit (usually with a vehicle)	separable transitive	The criminals ran the old lady down.
run down	loose power, tire	intransitive	The batteries finally ran down.
run for	campaign for a position	inseparable transitive	I am running for secretary.
run into	meet or encounter unexpectedly	inseparable transitive	She ran into an old friend while shopping.
run off	make leave	separable transitive	The noisy neighbors ran the new neighbors off.
run off	leave (usually quickly or unexpectedly)	intransitive	My dog ran off last night again.
run off	reproduce, copy	separable transitive	Can you run a few extra copies off?
run out of	use all, have no more	inseparable transitive	The restaurant ran out of scones.
run up	increase	separable transitive	She ran her credit card charges up.