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
These examples are automatically compiled from online sources to illustrate current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Harbaugh also recalled telling Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert ahead of Sunday’s game that he felt unusually pumped up. Ben Morse, CNN, 15 Oct. 2024 Its high 2024 grounder park factor of 116.9 pumped up offense a bit - at this point, that seems like an outlier that should regress to the mean going forward. Tony Blengino, Forbes, 11 Oct. 2024 In this week’s Saturday Night Live promo, Michael Keaton seems very pumped up to return as host. Greg Evans, Deadline, 16 Oct. 2024 Dell's speakers can pump up the volume but are not the most impressive in frequency response. PCMAG, 27 Sep. 2024 See all Example Sentences for pump up 

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 12 Nov. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!