The Wonderful Word "UP"
Learners of the English language might enjoy this. (if you're not learning you should get a chuckle anyway.) It is yet another example of why people learning English have trouble with the language. Learning the nuances of English makes it a difficult language. (But then, that's probably true of many languages.)
There is a two-letter word in English that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that word is 'UP.' It is listed in the dictionary as being used as an [adv], [prep], [adj], [n] or [v].
It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?
At a meeting, why does a topic come UP ? Why do we speak UP, and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends and we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.
At other times the little word has a real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.
To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.
And this up is confusing:
A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.
We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP !
To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP , look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4 of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions
If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.
When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP . When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, it wets UP the earth. When it does not rain for awhile, things dry UP.
One could go on & on, but I'll wrap it UP , for now ........my time is UP , so it's time to shut UP!
11 Answers
Oh these poor souls trying to learn English! 
As much as I didn't want to, I had to vote you UP for this, Eddy! (I didn't want to because you already have muchos puntos 
) Thanks
Calvo
And why is it that you can chop a tree DOWN, and then chop the same tree UP?
That was extremely funny Eddy!
If you can put UP with me a moment...I think this small word is going to drive me UP a wall every time I hear it now! 
And I can only imagine what an English learner might think when he reads the following on a public restroom paper towel dispenser:
"Pull down, Tear up" 
"So, I pull the dispenser off the wall...
...then tear it in pieces...
And how do my hands dry?"
I think you forgot about up yours too.
Up till now -- I never knew which way was up. Now I know.
Eddy, that was great.
Oh, this is Priceless!
I'd have never thought of something like this!
Actually, this reminds me of my neighbor scolding her child....
Shut it Up...hush Up that noise! Don't make me come Up there! 
It's strange how this word is so difficult for non-native speakers yet learning all of these phrasal verbs through context with the word up seemed as an easy part of English to understand up till now. Up already means more than one thing alone and works like magic in other contexts. 
Wait... wasn't that a movie I saw?
At first I was afraid that adding to your 10 votes would make you "uppity" but I think you deserve them.
