# open up

CEFR B1 · Phrasal verb

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/open-up
Updated: 2026-10-22

## Definition

to start talking more about your personal feelings or secrets to someone else. You use this when you finally feel comfortable enough to share what you are thinking.

For teachers: to begin to speak more freely about one's thoughts, feelings, or personal history. This sense is typically intransitive, though it frequently licenses a prepositional complement using 'to' or 'about'.

## Examples

- It took a long time for him to open up about his past.
- After a few hours of hiking, Sarah finally started to open up about why she was feeling so stressed at work.
- The therapist's empathetic approach encouraged the patient to open up, eventually revealing the deep-seated anxieties that had been hindering his professional progress for years.

## Pitfalls

- Not "He opened up his feelings to me." but "He opened up to me about his feelings." — in the emotional sense, the verb is typically intransitive and does not take the feelings themselves as a direct object.

## Usage notes

- usually used without a direct object or followed by 'to' and the person listening.
- Teaching tip: contrast with 'bottle up' or 'clam up' to help students visualize the emotional movement of the phrase.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.