pump up
Idioms-
Inflate with gas or air, as in This tire needs pumping up . [Late 1800s]
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Fill with enthusiasm, strength, and energy, as in The lively debate pumped us all up . Mary Wollstonecraft used this idiom in slightly different form in The Rights of Women (1792): “Lover-like phrases of pumped-up passion.”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In April, those numbers came in at multi-year highs, with fuel prices at the pump up around 51 percent since the war began, and grocery prices at their highest level since 2023.
From Barron's ● May 13, 2026
Wall Street veteran Ed Yardeni is the latest to pump up his S&P 500 target for 2026, raising it from 7,700 to 8,250 as he tracks analysts’ rising optimism about corporate profits.
From MarketWatch ● May 11, 2026
The energy sector, for instance, outpaces the broad market as measured by the S&P 500 — as would be expected, since higher prices pump up the bottom lines of oil and gas producers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 10, 2026
But you should be strategic, not frantic, when trying to pump up your AI bona fides, writes Callum Borchers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 11, 2026
When I went and stood by her side, she lifted her head, looked at me, and raised a hand, once, twice, as if to pump up words.
From "Crispin: The Cross of Lead" by Avi
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
