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hype1

[hahyp]Informal.
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verb (used with object), hyped, hyp·ing.
  1. to stimulate, excite, or agitate (usually followed by up): She was hyped up at the thought of owning her own car.
  2. to create interest in by flamboyant or dramatic methods; promote or publicize showily: a promoter who knows how to hype a prizefight.
  3. to intensify (advertising, promotion, or publicity) by ingenious or questionable claims, methods, etc. (usually followed by up).
  4. to trick; gull.
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noun
  1. exaggerated publicity; hoopla.
  2. an ingenious or questionable claim, method, etc., used in advertising, promotion, or publicity to intensify the effect.
  3. a swindle, deception, or trick.
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Origin of hype1

1925–30, Americanism; in sense “to trick, swindle,” of uncertain origin; subsequent senses perhaps by reanalysis as a shortening of hyperbole
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

urgerequestpushpersuadesolicitpresspromoteswaypolitickreinforceboostsupportbackcooperatebenefitsustainaidfacilitateexpediteoverrate

Examples from the Web for hyping

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • In the ring, he excelled greatly at hyping, and if this chanced to miss, generally followed up with the "ham."

British Dictionary definitions for hyping

hype1

noun
  1. a hypodermic needle or injection
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verb
  1. (intr usually foll by up) to inject oneself with a drug
  2. (tr) to stimulate artificially or excite
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Word Origin

C20: shortened from hypodermic

hype2

noun
  1. a deception or racket
  2. intensive or exaggerated publicity or sales promotionmedia hype
  3. the person or thing so publicized
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verb (tr)
  1. to market or promote (a product) using exaggerated or intensive publicity
  2. to falsify or rig (something)
  3. (in the pop-music business) to buy (copies of a particular record) in such quantity as to increase its ratings in the charts
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Derived Formshyper, nounhyping, noun

Word Origin

C20: of unknown origin
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for hyping

hype

n.

"excessive or misleading publicity or advertising," 1967, American English (the verb is attested from 1937), probably in part a back-formation of hyperbole, but also from underworld slang sense "swindle by overcharging or short-changing" (1926), a back-formation of hyper "short-change con man" (1914), from prefix hyper- meaning "over, to excess." Also possibly influenced by drug addicts' slang hype, 1913 shortening of hypodermic needle. Related: Hyped; hyping. In early 18c., hyp "morbid depression of the spirits" was colloquial for hypochondria (usually as the hyp or the hyps).

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper