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
These rules allow employees to seriously pump up their retirement savings, specifically by converting those after-tax savings to Roth dollars through the three-step megabackdoor Roth strategy.
From MarketWatch • Nov. 24, 2025
She had a wealth of Dale Carnegie-esque aphorisms to pump up her young charge, such as “put on your magic shoes,” or “Mind is in every cell of the body. Thoughts are everything.”
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 27, 2025
Home players will do whatever they can to pump up the crowd, while the visiting side always relishes any opportunity to hit back.
From The Wall Street Journal • Sep. 27, 2025
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.
