pal up

present singular third person pals up · participle present palling up · participle past palled up · past palled up

1. AustraliaUKinformalintransitiveTo become friends.

   ... you could make a bit of conversation.' 'I don't want to. I'm on holiday with my family. I don't want to pal up with some bloke from the Pru, just because he's asked me to pass the sauce.'

   1996, Laurie Graham, The Ten O'Clock Horses, Hachette UK

   2 more examples

   He'd happened to pal up with a Free French bloke who'd been in the orthopaedic wards, and when this fellow went home with a couple of bone grafts Rushleigh got an invitation to stay at his place down at Nice, buckshee.

   1955, Richard Gordon, Doctor At Large, House of Stratus

   Normally in the CID you'd pal up with somebody, but nobody seemed to be his pal. 'He was creepy, a creepy type of bloke, you know. He always seemed to be hanging around, and he always seemed to be bloody listening to other people's[…]

   2006, David Seabrook, Jack of Jumps, Granta Publications

   Synonyms: buddy up

2. To form an alliance.

   WHEN union-busting coal operators and the sowers of red philosopies "pal" up together it is the beginning of a situation that affects the entire country.

   1928, United Mine Workers Journal - Volume 39, page 6

   2 more examples

   Governmental and/or non-governmental organizations may "pal up" with schools for migrant children to provide assistance — such as contributions, teaching and protecting the students' rights and interests.

   2006, Women of China, page 14

   Recreating the Scottish enlightenment-inspired liberalism of the 1790s, Ulster would cancel out a Catholic authoritarianism only too prone to pal up with the Tom Broadbents of British capitalism.

   2008, Christopher Harvie, A Floating Commonwealth, page 103