chirk up

present singular third person chirks up · participle present chirking up · participle past chirked up · past chirked up

1. idiomatictransitiveTo make more cheerful; to cause to perk up.

   My idea was to chirk him up at the start.

   1917, Sewell Ford, Wilt Thou Torchy

   1 more example

   "Well, I think," said Mis' Jane Moran, "that we've hit on the only way we could have hit on to chirk each other up over a hard time."

   1912, Zona Gale, Christmas

2. idiomaticintransitiveTo become more cheerful; to perk up or become animated or enthusiastic.

   Now you jest wipe your eyes and chirk up.

   1908, Grace Livingston Hill Lutz, Marcia Schuyler

   2 more examples

   "Go ahead," he says, and I see Jim chirk up to listen.

   1894, Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), Tom Sawyer Abroad

   She was terrified but in control. n. How, on the trip around the country my parents took the year after my birth, their mood sank so low that even my brother sensed it. "Chirk up, guys," he said. "Chirk up." They laughed at that.

   2006, Anna Cypra Oliver, Assembling My Father: A Daughter's Detective Story, page 10