stir up

verb

stirred up; stirring up; stirs up

transitive verb

1

: to cause (someone) to feel a strong emotion and a desire to do something

The speech stirred up the crowd.

2

: to cause (something) to move up into and through the air or water

The workers stirred up a lot of dust.

3

: to cause (something, usually something bad or unpleasant) to happen

They're trying to stir up trouble.

But, of course, there's a reason politicians generally try to communicate deliberately: It helps them avoid saying things that might offend voters or stir up controversy.

—Philip Bump

I'm not a rebel, trying to stir things up just to be provocative.

—Norma Klein

… the incident stirred up a hornet's nest of protest and indignation.

—Robert T. Martinott

Examples of stir up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In Homer’s Iliad, Conflict (Eris) plays a similar role, stirring up the people to fight. —Literary Hub, 3 Sep. 2025

Leave it to the changemaker planet, Uranus, to station retrograde in your career sector to stir up changes that completely catch you off guard. —Valerie Mesa, People.com, 1 Sep. 2025

Rough surf and rip currents stirred up by its high winds and large size are blamed for the deaths of two swimmers, one in New Hampshire and one off Long Island. —Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA Today, 31 Aug. 2025

Uranus has been stirring up your dream life and spiritual downloads for a while now, but the retrograde turns the volume up. —Dossé-Via Trenou, Refinery29, 31 Aug. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for stir up

• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup
• markup