pump up

verb

pumped up; pumping up; pumps up

transitive verb

1
a
: to fill with enthusiasm or excitement
b
: to fill with or as if with air : inflate
2

Examples of pump up in a Sentence

the crowd was pumped up by the band's rocking performance that pop diva is trying to pump up album sales with an extended publicity tour
Recent Examples on the Web But even Wall Street is wondering if the studio’s reported $1 billion annual spend on films would have been better served by pumping up the volume of product rather than taking a few nine-figure swings. Tatiana Siegel, Variety, 6 Mar. 2024 Both stem from pumping up the voltage in the lines connecting to the encryption key’s bit-generating circuits. IEEE Spectrum, 28 Feb. 2024 By pumping up the Fall-Winter season with some quintessential New Yorker’s ebullience, Hilfiger — a mainstay of the American fashion complex — made a case for optimism. Nick Remsen, CNN, 13 Feb. 2024 Regulators said Berman posted over 1,000 messages on the iHUB message board to pump up the stock price. Amanda Gerut, Fortune, 13 Apr. 2024 There are some solid reasons to want to pump up your push-up skills in the first place. Christa Sgobba, SELF, 2 Apr. 2024 Massive lottery jackpots have become more common in recent years as lottery officials adjust game rules and ticket prices to pump up the top prizes. Khristopher J. Brooks, CBS News, 1 Apr. 2024 If this Silicon Valley A.I. gathering was intended to pump up passions for spending, dreaming and investing, whatever the risks or costs, the second meeting, in Washington, was devoted to curbing unwarranted financial enthusiasm. Jeff Sommer, New York Times, 22 Mar. 2024 Neumann’s prior role at WeWork — which pumped up the company’s value to $47 billion prior to the company’s November 2023 bankruptcy — makes his return unpalatable to investors. Peter Cohan, Forbes, 27 Mar. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pump up.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1791, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Time Traveler
The first known use of pump up was in 1791

Cite this Entry

“Pump up.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pump%20up. Accessed 2 May. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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