square up to

idiom

: to begin to deal with (a difficult person or situation) in a direct way
We need to square up to this problem.
He's finally squaring up to his critics.

Examples of square up to in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Hold a workpiece to the bench, and slide a square up to the cut mark. Roy Berendsohn, Popular Mechanics, 7 June 2023 Jack Edelen said his father showed him videos of Pete Maravich, Larry Bird and Stephen Curry to discount the theory that players should square up to the rim before shooting. Jason Frakes, The Courier-Journal, 14 Mar. 2023 The 6-foot-11 Landale is more versatile as a shooter and can square up to the hoop better than his predecessor McGee. Dana Scott, The Arizona Republic, 18 Oct. 2022 Heavy-handed and redirects targets even when not fully able to square up to engage. oregonlive, 6 Dec. 2021 But the timing of the announcement a week before the Quad summit, and the involvement of the U.S. and Australia, convince some experts that America’s Indo-Pacific partners are taking their gloves off to square up to China. Howard Lafranchi, The Christian Science Monitor, 23 Sep. 2021

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'square up to.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Dictionary Entries Near square up to

Cite this Entry

“Square up to.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/square%20up%20to. Accessed 23 Apr. 2024.

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!