Meaning of studs up | Babel Free

Definitions

1. With the studs (cleats) of ones boots exposed to hit another player, in a way that violates the rules.
2. Aggressively, ruthlessly and recklessly.
   UK, broadly

Examples

“Huth flies into a sliding tackle, studs up, but gets the ball off Elmander.”

“One guy took a run at Maslah from thirty yards out, slamming into him, studs up, nailing his knee.”

“So it was that Oily Mike found himself up against Angela Rayner in the Commons for the third time in a matter of weeks. Labour's deputy leader went in studs up.”

“As Truss’s foreign secretary, it was he who was tasked with opening negotiations, and who said at the time that he hoped to have them wrapped up by last year. That made his decision to go in studs up on the Government’s announcement understandable, on one level, but nonetheless what Sir Humphrey might have described as “courageous”.”

“The Vote Leavers were adept at studs-up political campaigning, the City Hall people from Johnson's time as mayor of London were hard-wired for governing.”

CEFR level