beef up
phrasal verb.phrasal verb. to make something stronger or more powerful by adding extra people, equipment, or features.
phrasal verb. to augment or strengthen a system, organisation, or object by adding resources, personnel, or components; transitive.
They beef up security before the concert.
The company plans to beef up its IT team after last week’s cyber-attack.
Governments often beef up border controls during periods of heightened geopolitical tension.
Originally college slang, from beef (“muscle-power”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
common collocations: beef up security, staff, defences, resume, infrastructure.
stress that the object normally follows the particle; contrast with ‘scale up’ (focus on size) and ‘tighten up’ (focus on strictness).
They beefed security up.They beefed up security.particle ‘up’ must precede the object; this verb is inseparable.
Last updated April 24, 2026