Phrasal Verb: TO FROWN UPON/AT

Hey guys. How are you? Today I wanna talk about some phrasal verbs that may be really interesting for you to learn. Those are TO FROWN UPON and TO FROWN AT something or someone. Have you ever heard of them? They're really common and from the moment you learn them, you'll find yourself using them on a really regular basis.

See what I found on a Facebook page:

When something is frowned upon, it means it is disapproved. In other words, the management doesn't approve people slaping the shit out of anyone at work. In this case, who disaproves is not necessarily a person, but the administration, the management of an institution. For that case, you can only use the phrasal verb to frown upon or simply frown on, because it simply means to disaprove. See another example: The Internal Revenue Service frowns on tax cheaters.

But when you look up the meaning of the verb to FROWN on the dictionary, you'll find a description that says something like "to contract the brow, as in displeasure or deep thought". Why am I telling you this? Because I want you to know that only people can do that. Only people can contract their brows in an act of displeasure. That's why there's the second phrasal verb TO FRAWN AT that refers to the literal act of contracting your brow. See the next example: Please don't frown at me. I din't do anything.

Hope you liked it. See you soon!