sit up and take notice
sit up and take notice
To become alert and give one's complete attention to someone or something. Although he's been making music for years, it was his smash hit song last April that caused people to sit up and take notice. The president's proposed legislation has made many global leaders sit up and take notice.
See also: and, notice, sit, take, up
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
sit up and take notice
to become alert and pay attention. A loud noise from the front of the room caused everyone to sit up and take notice. The company wouldn't pay any attention to my complaints. When I had my lawyer write them a letter, they sat up and took notice.
See also: and, notice, sit, take, up
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
sit up and take notice
If someone sits up and takes notice, they start paying attention to something because they realize it is important or worth noticing. In the last few years the medical world has begun to sit up and take notice of the role diet has to play in health. Pressure groups will need to campaign hard before anyone in power is forced to sit up and take notice.
See also: and, notice, sit, take, up
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.
sit up and take notice, to (make someone)
To (make someone) pay attention; to astonish or startle someone. This late nineteenth-century expression calls up the image of a dog sitting up, wide awake and completely alert. O. Henry used it in his story The Enchanted Profile (1909): “Sit up and take notice—a dispossess notice if there’s no other kind.”
See also: and, sit, take, up
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- sit up and take notice, to (make someone)
- make (one) sit up and take notice
- stomp on
- stomp on (someone or something)
- stomp on someone
- stomp someone
- strike (someone or something) with (something)
- strike with
- tricken
- tricken with