Or is 'slow up' not a saying?!?!

[Missb00]

I hear this so many times!! Today it's a colleague 'oh the motorway is shut, that will slow up the alternative routes too'

Surely it's slow down?! And speed up?! If this is a saying and I've just been living under a rock my whole life please let me know, but I haaaaaate it and to me it doesn't make sense!

I agree.

YANBU - and I've fortunately never heard anyone say it. If they insist on "up" they can perhaps go for "hold up"!

Slow up = increase your slowness, i.e. speed. Slow down means the same thing. I don't have dictionary to hand but I would expect both to be in there. I hear 'slow up' regularly, usually in reference to something 'slowing up the process'. Up and down are antonyms but it's isn't completely unheard of for antonyms to be used to mean the same thing; for example you can fill in, or fill out, a questionnaire.

I understand 'slow up' to be a regional variant in American English. Not sure it'd be used in the sentence you describe, though - when I've heard it, it's been part of a request for someone to drop their pace to allow others to keep up/catch up ('Hey, slow up!').

*i.e reduce your speed

YABU, it means the same thing as slow down. 'Slowing up the process' is a good example given above.

Slow up is nonsense! It's slow down of course.

I've never understood why "lucked out" is used as a positive. Surely it means you're out of luck and therefore a negative???

We had a power cut recently and the fridge and freezer went off, the computer went off, all the lights went off and the burglar alarm went off.
Same words, except the fridge, freezer, lights etc stopped working and the burglar alarm started working.

@Gatehouse77 I've always taken it to mean that you "lucked" yourself "out" of a problem, not that you're out of luck.

'Slow up' may be nonsense, but it is an established saying.

Yep slow up is a recognised saying, people round here use it.

If you hear it lots. Then YABU. It IS a frequent saying! Are you going to question other sayings just because the grammar irritates? There are plenty. Just let it all out!