Let’s kick off this lesson with an explanation of phrasal verbs, then move on to different phrasals using the verb KICK. In this lesson you will discover the meanings of kick in, kick off, kick around, kick back, kick out, kick about, kick up, and kick over. Phrasal verbs are an important part of English vocabulary, so watch and learn these eight ’kick’ phrasal verbs.
TAKE THE QUIZ:
WATCH NEXT:
1. Phrasal Verbs with ’step’:
2. Phrasal Verbs with ’take’:
3. Phrasal Verbs with ’carry’:
TRANSCRIPT
Hi. Welcome to . I’m Adam. In today’s video we’re going to look at another set of phrasal verbs. Now, just as a reminder: What is a phrasal verb? A phrasal verb is a combination of a verb and a preposition: “in“, “on“, “at“, “off“, etc. and the combination usually makes other meanings than the two words themselves. Now, some phrasal verbs obviously have more than one meaning, so we’re going to look at the different meanings with the verb “kick“. For example: “kick in“, “kick back“, “kick out“, “kick off“, “kick about“ or “kick around“, “kick up“, and “kick over“. Now, some of these will have more than one meaning, some will just have the one meaning. Some of these can also be joined to make a noun, and we’re going to look at that as well.
So we’re going to start with “kick in“. A few meanings to “kick in“. The more literal one, like takes the verb “kick“ means to kick with your leg, so if you kick something in, you’re breaking it with your feet. So the most common example is, like, police, they go into... They want to go into an apartment or a house and arrest somebody, so they kick in the door. They just break the door and they go in. We can also say: “kick down“ for the same meaning. They kick down the door or they kick in the door, so physically break with your feet. Another meaning of “kick“ is basically take effect. This is especially used when we’re talking about drugs, when we’re taking a pill. So the doctor gave you a pill, maybe you have a really bad headache and you take a Tylenol or an Advil, or Aspirin or whatever, and it doesn’t work right away. It takes a little time for the pill to kick in. So basically to take effect, to start working. So another meaning is start... But usually a process. Start a process. So, now, we can also use this in other situations. For example, a policy. So the government decided to increase taxes, but they don’t do it suddenly. Okay? Because a lot of people will not be ready for it, it will cause a lot of problems. So they say: “Okay, starting in six months, we have a new policy where the tax will go up by 1%.“ So this policy will kick in on September 1st, for example, whenever that six months down the road is. So, “kick in“ start or go into effect. Okay? Now, we can also use “kick in“ to contribute. So, we’re going to have an office party. Janice, the accountant, has a birthday and everybody wants to, you know, show her... Show their appreciation for her hard work, so everybody’s going to kick in five bucks, and we collect all this money and we create a party for Janice. Okay? So, “kick in“ basically means give, contribute to a pool. So those are all the “kick ins“.
Now, “kick back“. First of all, there’s the literal one where you kick back. Right? So, to relax. -“So what are you doing this weekend?“ -“Oh, nothing, just kicking back.“ It means I’m sitting at home with my feet up on a table, and I’m just relaxing, doing nothing. Another meaning of “kick back“ is payment, is a type of payment, but usually it means a bribe. Okay? A bribe means you’re paying somebody to do something for you. The most common example that I can think of is doctors and pharmaceutical companies, the companies that make the drugs. So the doctor, all his patients come in and he says: “Oh, you need this prescription. Here you go, go buy the pills. Here, you need this prescription.“ They don’t need it. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t, but some doctors just prescribe medicine for everybody for everything. Why? Because the pharmacy, the pharmaceutical company gives the doctor a “kickback“. So this can be a noun as well. A “kickback“ or “kickbacks“. Okay? It’s a noun, it basically means a bribe, a payment for doing them a favour. Okay? So, to relax or to pay sort of underneath as a gift, as a bribe.
“To kick out“, okay? “To kick out“ could be physical, means you take somebody and you kick them out the door. So if you go to a club and you’re not behaving very nicely, the bouncer, the big guys standing at the door, they will take you and they will kick you out. They will throw you out of the club. But it doesn’t have to be physical.