This mini episode teaches you another useful expression: “up for grabs.”
Episode 160 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you another useful expression: “up for grabs.” Send your questions about English and your suggestions for future episodes to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
The expression I’m going to teach you today has nothing to do with the coronavirus. The expression is up for grabs. Up for grabs. That’s up: u-p. For: f-o-r. Grabs: g-r-a-b-s. Up for grabs. What does up for grabs mean?
Up for grabs means “available for someone to take,” or “available for people to try to get,” or “available for people to claim.”
Let me give you a couple of example sentences that show how we use up for grabs.
“The last piece of pizza is up for grabs—does anyone want to eat it?” The last piece of pizza is up for grabs—does anyone want to eat it?
In other words, there is one piece of pizza left. It’s up for grabs. It is available to anybody who wants it. Or it is available and many people can try to get it. Or many people can try to claim it. Many people can say, “I'll take it,” “No, I want it,” “I'll take it,” “It's mine.” That last piece of pizza is up for grabs. Nobody has claimed it yet, but it is available for people to claim.
Here's another example of a sentence that uses the phrase up for grabs:
“The Best Student award is still up for grabs.” The Best Student award is still up for grabs.
In this example, I guess there is an award for the best student in the school. And the award is still up for grabs. In other words, the award has not been given to anybody yet. Nobody has won this award yet. It is still available for people to claim, or it's still available for people to try to get. Or it's still available for people to try to win. The award is still up for grabs. It has not been claimed by anybody yet.
That is the phrase up for grabs. I think that is a useful phrase and one that you should know.