English

Verb

kick up ‎(third-person singular simple present kicks up, present participle kicking up, simple past and past participle kicked up)

1. (transitive, intransitive) Used other than as an idiom: see kick,‎ up.

   She kicked up, which is to say, it was in an upward direction that she kicked.

   You could tell where he had been by the cloud of dust he had kicked up.

   She kicked the ball up, which is to say, she kicked and in that way caused the ball to move upwards.

   • 2006, C. R. Kwiat, Razor’s Box, page 68:

     Alyssa turned around to look at Rebecca. “I suppose you could call it that.” She walked forward and kicked the ball up to her hands. “This used to be my best ball.” “Let me see you fix it,” Rebecca said with her eyebrows raised.

2. (figuratively, by extension, transitive, US) To raise, to increase (a price).

   The rent has been kicked up again.

   • 1998, Paul Stiles, Riding the bull: my year in the madness at Merrill Lynch, page 200:

     When Brazil triumphed over Italy in the final, it kicked up the price of Brazilian bonds.

   • 2010, Gary Lee Falls, Eras Way Answers, page 124:

     Instead, when speaking the truth, rather than getting kicked out of town or worse, getting strung up with a rope in the South, here in Boston and the North, generally they got back at troublemakers by taking your token job, kicking up the rent, and for serious punishment, they'd agree with you and the ideas you were mouthing then as quickly as possible help you get back to the South so they could see how long you'd last.

3. (figuratively, transitive) To stir up (trouble), to cause (a disturbance).
   • 1874, John Henry Walsh, A Manual of Domestic Economy: Suited to Families spending from £150 to £1500 a year, page 639:

     It is no wonder that they are often heavy and indisposed, and demand on the next morning a visit to the medicine-chest to get rid of the superfluous food, which has already kicked up a disturbance.

   • 2009, Christine Bichsel, Conflict transformation in Central Asia: irrigation disputes, page 92:

     He said that the disturbances had been initiated by Tajiks, residents of the Uzbek village of Khushjar, who raided the Kyrgyz territory and kicked up a row with the locals. Blows were traded.

4. (idiomatic, intransitive) To show anger (about something).

   He kicked up about it when they told him the train had been cancelled.

   • 2005, Tony Gant, Sunrise Sandwiches, page 517:

     But, you have kicked up about that a few times. I've got used to it, though. What I am not used to is how you are now. Very quiet, philosophical, and acquiescent.

5. (idiomatic, intransitive, US) To function improperly, to show signs of disorder, (of an illness) to flare up.

   The car is kicking up.

   • 2006, Thomas E. Brown, Attention Deficit Disorder: The Unfocused Mind in Children and Adults, page 153:

     My ADHD is kicking up again.