Ups and downs

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The words up and down often indicate direction, usually following a verb of movement like go or come – the temperature goes up or down, and prices usually go up. But up and down are used with many other verbs – you can look up or look down, for example.
You can walk up a street, run up the stairs, or drive down a hill. And they say that Santa Claus climbs down chimneys on Christmas Eve. English often uses a verb expressing how somebody moves (walk, run, drive), and a word like up or down to show direction.
A similar meaning is found in phrasal verbs like get up, stand up, sit down and lie down.
Sometimes, the verb takes an object. You may put a poster up on the wall, or you may take it down. When getting dressed, you pull your socks up. If you can't hear the radio properly, you turn it up. If you want to write you can pick up a pencil, and when you finish you put it down.

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