Question

Can someone explain what 'up in arms' means? 🤔

2023-06-25

This is what goPenpal answered

Absolutely, happy to help! 'Up in arms' is a phrase borrowed from times of war and revolutions. When people are 'up in arms' they are not preparing for battle literally, but they are very angry and ready to protest vehemently about something.

To break it down, 'arms' here refers to weapons, usually firearms, that were traditionally raised or lifted 'up' when prepared to fight. However, in modern usage, this phrase has nothing to do with actual weapons. Instead, it signals strong feelings of indignation, anger, or passion about a topic. You might hear it in situations where people are deeply upset about decisions made by authorities, upset about social issues, or even when they feel a movie adaptation didn't do justice to the original book.

So, if you ever come across a sentence like "Fans were up in arms over the changes to the team's logo", it means the fans were expressing serious discontent or outrage about it. In essence, it's a vivid figure of speech that captures the image of an animated, impassioned response to a situation. Oh, and fun fact, this phrase has been in use in English for about 500 years – that's a linguistic veteran for you!

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