prop up

phrasal verb

propped up; propping up; props up

1

: to stop (something) from falling or slipping by placing something under or against it

We propped up the beams with long boards.

propped the plant stems up

2

: to give help, encouragement, or support to (someone)

His faith propped him up in times of crisis.

Examples of prop up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Despite its importance, the back office is often an afterthought—built piecemeal and propped up by loyal employees and aging tech. —Sudhir Menon, Forbes.com, 30 Apr. 2025

Vancouver props up the upper-left corner of the league’s geography, some distance from other Canadian clubs in Toronto and Montreal while being overshadowed in the Pacific Northwest by a historic rivalry between the Seattle Sounders and the Portland Timbers. —Jeff Rueter, New York Times, 30 Apr. 2025

Then, in an unprecedented collusion between big tech and U.S. state power, Trump handed Musk the reins of the U.S. government just as the world’s richest man was using his social media platform to prop up the neofascist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the German parliamentary elections. —Anu Bradford, Foreign Affairs, 21 Apr. 2025

One of the narratives about linear television these days is that it’s propped up by live sports. —Kathryn Vanarendonk, Vulture, 18 Apr. 2025

Rhymes for prop up

• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup
• markup