mix it up

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mix it up (third-person singular simple present mixes it up, present participle mixing it up, simple past and past participle mixed it up)

1. (idiomatic) To compete vigorously, to quarrel, or to fight physically.
   • 1920, F. Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 2, in This Side of Paradise:

     He would have felt like an irate ticket-holder at a prize-fight where the principals refused to mix it up.

2. To engage with people, relate to people.
   • 1933, Robert Collins, The Convention:

     And Carl hasn't really been mixing it up with the fans.

   • 2010 Meet the Press interview with Colin Powell, speaking of Sarah Palin:

     Q. What is her impact right now on the Republican Party, and does it bother you?
     A. She's a star. Why--it doesn't bother me. I mean, she is out there mixing it up, she's conveying her views, she's animating people to come forward and participate in the political process.

   • 2015 BBC interview by Jon Sopel with Barack Obama, 24 July. Answer to a question about his trip to Kenya:

     This one's more business. You don't have the time to travel. You don't have the time to, ah, mix it up.

3. To create one or more variations of the usual way in which something is done.
   • 2002, Kathy Etling, The Art of Whitetail Deception, →ISBN, page 95:

     Indeed, why not try mixing it up even more by adding a completely different deer vocalization to the mix, or maybe more, to make the woods come alive with the sounds that deer make?

• in the mix
• mix up

• “mix it up”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.