hype1
[hahyp]Informal.
- to stimulate, excite, or agitate (usually followed by up): She was hyped up at the thought of owning her own car.
- to create interest in by flamboyant or dramatic methods; promote or publicize showily: a promoter who knows how to hype a prizefight.
- to intensify (advertising, promotion, or publicity) by ingenious or questionable claims, methods, etc. (usually followed by up).
- to trick; gull.
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- exaggerated publicity; hoopla.
- an ingenious or questionable claim, method, etc., used in advertising, promotion, or publicity to intensify the effect.
- 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
Examples from the Web for hyping
Contemporary Examples
There are a lot of remarkable things to explain, instead of hyping up a fear which is not well-grounded.
In most battles, the rounds focus on battlers tearing each other down or hyping their own mastery of battle skills.
The industry itself is its own Flavor Flav, hyping us up for these yearly achievements.
From President Obama on down, everyone is hyping innovation these days.
Historical Examples
In the ring, he excelled greatly at hyping, and if this chanced to miss, generally followed up with the "ham."
Wrestling and Wrestlers:Jacob Robinson
hype1
- a hypodermic needle or injection
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- (intr usually foll by up) to inject oneself with a drug
- (tr) to stimulate artificially or excite
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Word Origin
C20: shortened from hypodermic
hype2
- a deception or racket
- intensive or exaggerated publicity or sales promotionmedia hype
- the person or thing so publicized
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- to market or promote (a product) using exaggerated or intensive publicity
- to falsify or rig (something)
- (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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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