Deploy and Debug Phrasal Verbs

Correct: fell over — stopped working, crashed

fell over is used to describe a system, process, or service that stopped functioning unexpectedly, as if it physically tipped and stopped.

In DevOps and CI/CD contexts:

• "The build server fell over during peak load." ✓
• "The container fell over after consuming all available memory." ✓
• "The pipeline fell over — check the logs." ✓

Why the others are wrong here:

• fell through: means a plan or deal failed to happen — "The merger fell through." Not used for systems crashing.
• fell apart: means something disintegrated or stopped working as a coherent whole — more often used for processes or relationships, not automated pipelines.
• fell down: informal for failing to meet expectations — "He fell down on the job." Not idiomatic for infrastructure.

Useful deploy/pipeline vocabulary:

• "The pipeline fell over / broke / failed"
• "The deploy went sideways" (informal for unexpected failure)
• "The service went down" (became unavailable)

Correct: hold off — delay or postpone something

hold off (on something) means to deliberately delay or not proceed with something. It is the natural phrasing when a decision is made to wait before doing something.

In release management:

• "Let's hold off on the deployment until we get the green light." ✓
• "We're holding off the release until the performance tests finish." ✓

Why the others differ:

• hold up: can mean "delay caused by something external" — "The review is holding up the deploy." This describes the cause of delay, not the decision to delay.
• hold out: to endure/persist, or to withhold — "Hold out for a better offer." Not used for deployment scheduling.
• hold on: a brief pause or "wait a moment" — "Hold on, let me check the logs." Too temporary/informal for a formal delay.

Release management phrases:

• "We're holding off until [condition]."
• "The release has been pushed back to [date]."
• "We're gating the deploy on the security review."

Correct: sign off on — give official approval

sign off on something means to give formal or official approval for something to proceed. In software delivery, it is the standard phrase for a team or individual giving their go-ahead.

In release processes:

• "QA has signed off on the release." ✓
• "The product owner needs to sign off on the acceptance criteria." ✓
• "We can't ship until security signs off." ✓ (drop "on" when no object follows)

The others are unrelated:

• sign up for: to register or enrol — "Sign up for the training."
• sign in on: not a standard phrase. "Sign in" means to log in to a system.
• sign out: to log out, or to leave formally — "Sign out of the system."

Approval phrases in software teams:

• "QA has signed off on it."
• "Waiting for the PM to give the go-ahead."
• "The release has been approved / cleared for production."

Correct: flagged up — brought to attention, highlighted

flag up (or simply "flag") means to draw attention to something, to mark it as requiring notice or action. It is widely used in monitoring, code review, and incident management contexts.

In observability and monitoring:

• "The alert flagged up an anomaly in the error rate." ✓
• "The linter flagged up three unused variables." ✓
• "I want to flag up a concern about this architecture." ✓

The others:

• flagged down: to stop something (usually a vehicle) — "She flagged down a taxi." Not used in tech monitoring.
• flagged out / flagged in: not standard English phrases.

Note: "flag up" is British English; American English often uses just "flag" without the particle. Both are correct in international tech teams:

• British: "The system flagged up the issue."
• American: "The system flagged the issue."

Correct: wrapped up — completed, resolved, concluded

wrap up means to finish or bring something to a close. In incident management, it is used when an incident is resolved and formally closed.

In incident response:

• "The incident was wrapped up within two hours of the hotfix." ✓
• "Let's wrap up the post-mortem and assign the action items." ✓
• "We wrapped up the migration at 03:00 UTC." ✓

The lifecycle of an incident in phrasal verbs:

1. The service went down / fell over
2. The on-call engineer was paged / looped in
3. The team dug into the logs
4. A hotfix was pushed out
5. The incident was wrapped up / closed out

The others:

• wrapped in: covered with something — "wrapped in foil." Literal.
• wrapped out / wrapped over: not standard English phrases in this context.