Uses of "put" (Close this page to return to the activity)

The context of the examples here should explain most of the meanings. However here are a few supplementary notes:

1 - To PUT OFF something is to decide to do it later (often something disagreable like to put off going to the dentist. It can refer to a precise moment or a more general idea.)
The hospital has put off his operation until next month. (A new appointment has been fixed.)
He wants to ask his wife for a divorce but he keeps putting it off. (more general)

2 - To PUT UP WITH (two prepositions) To tolerate a situation you are uncomfortable with.
That dog barks all the time. I don't know how you put up with the noise.

3 - Don't confuse n° 2 with To PUT SOMEONE UP - To provide lodging, a place to stay.
I have a spare room to put up my friends when they come to town.

4 - To humanely kill an animal, usually a pet, is to PUT IT DOWN. Usually the vet does it so it is mostly used in the causative:
I had the cat put down. She was 18 years old and suffering awfully from rheumatism.

5 - To PUT DOWN someone is to insult them or often to reply to an intended insult with a witty response. It can be used as a verb, and a noun, a "put-down" also exists - . A famous example from Oscar Wilde, a brilliant wit, to the Marquess of Queensbery who presented him with a "bouquet" of rotting vegetables:
Whenever I smell them I shall think of you.

6 - No problem we suppose.

7 - To PUT UP is to erect a building or a monument.
It can also be used metaphorically as, for example;
"The defending lawyer put up a strong defence."

8 - To PUT ACROSS is to transmit an idea or an argument convincingly. To PUT OVER is the same.
Churchill was able to put over/across his ideas in public, often in a remarkably effective rhetorical style.

9 - To PUT OUT is to release news of one kind or another.

10 - To PUT SOMETHING BACK - to return something to its place. Often, but not always similar to
PUT AWAY in Q 11.
Put your toys back where they belong
Put your toys away.

11 - See above to put something in its correct place. It used to be used (metaphorically) in sentences like.
They put her away in a lunatic asylum.

12 - To PUT (something) DOWN TO (something) - To attribute to a cause.
I put it all down to global warming.

13 - To PUT BY - To save money (not to economise, but to accumulate it. To PUT ASIDE can sometimes be used in a similar way and in America To PUT AWAY is also used..
He spent all the money he had put by for his retirement on his daughter's operation.

14 - To PUT IN FOR is to apply for something which might be considered a right (i.e. not a new job application).
He broke his leg at work and put in for compensation.
When Peter retires John will probabbly put in for his job.

15 - To be disgusted by, or at least discouraged from something.
Tim puts off all his girlfriends by talking about football all the time.
Janet's pregnant but it hasn't put her off her food. She eats like a horse.

16 - We set clocks forward or back in spring and autumn. If you have trouble remembering think of the saying: "Spring foreward. Fall back"; (fall being the American word for autumn.)

17 - To PUT DOWN (someone) FOR - To include someone in a list for any reason -contrubutor, member, official sympathiser...
You can put George down as an aplicant for the position of secretary.
If you need a referee you can put me down.

M Yates 02/08/2020