A dictionary of Confusable Phrases: More Than 10,000 Idioms and Collocations

chase two rabbits

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chat someone up • talk someone up
chat someone up —(UK coll., of men) try to make friends
with a woman by talking to her: I did my clumsy best to chat
her up and talked to her about my interest in archaeology.
talk someone up —(chiefly U.S.) praise smb.; speak in support
of a person: The coaches have been talking him up since early
in the preseason.
Note:
The expression is not antonymous in meaning to the
phrase talk someone down—
1
. silence smb. by speaking more
loudly or aggressively; win out over a person in an argument, etc.:
Eventually, however, Mr. Brown talked down all the other
members of the committee. 2. convince a person to lower the
price: This is my final offer…. Now, don’t try to talk me down.
3. provide a pilot with directions by radio which enable him to
land: They get us on the radar screen and talk us down on to
the runway.
See also: talk down to someone / talk up to someone.
check on something • check something
check on something —examine or assess smth. (such as a per-
son’s health, etc.): We checked on the possibility of shipping
some of our newly acquired paintings back to the States.
check something —
1
. examine smth. to learn whether it is
correct: The child should be taught how to check his spelling
against that of the dictionary. 2. = check on something: We’ve
added a test to check the possibility of hearing damage caused
by extended listening at high level. 3. cause an emotion, feel-
ing, etc. to stop: The changes that Mark Twain made indicate
that he checked his impulse to write an even darker, more
confrontational work.