step up to the plate
English edit
Etymology edit
An allusion to taking one's turn at bat in baseball.
Pronunciation edit
Audio (AU) (file)
Verb edit
step up to the plate (third-person singular simple present steps up to the plate, present participle stepping up to the plate, simple past and past participle stepped up to the plate)
- (chiefly US, idiomatic) To initiate action; to assume or take a responsibility.
- 2008 June 12, Beth Stackpole, “The IT pro's vacation planner”, in Computerworld[1], retrieved 17 June 2020:
- Surround yourself with good people who can reliably step up to the plate and solve problems when they occur.
- 2021 January 27, Paul Clifton, “What is the future of the RDG?”, in RAIL, issue 923, page 44:
- "There is something in railway people that has encouraged them to step up to the plate," says Starr.
Derived terms edit
References edit
- “step up to the plate”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.