shape-up

1. 1.

   a way of hiring longshoremen by the day; applicants gather around a union boss who selects those to be hired

   Broaderemployment

Questions about shape-up

What does shape-up mean?

shape-up means "a way of hiring longshoremen by the day; applicants gather around a union boss who selects those to be hired".

How many syllables are in shape-up?

shape-up has 3 syllables and divides as sha-pe--up under the regular spelling rules. It is not in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, so that comes from how the word is written rather than from a recorded pronunciation, and no stress or phonetic transcription is claimed for it.

Is shape-up a common word?

shape-up is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.