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

For now, the economy has avoided that outcome, in part because the AI boom has propped up investment and boosted household wealth through higher stock prices. —Eva Roytburg, Fortune, 16 Dec. 2025

Beijing then propped up this new ruling class as a bulwark against efforts to further democratize the territory. —Timothy McLaughlin, The Atlantic, 13 Dec. 2025

Instead, Kwon arranged for a high-frequency trading firm to secretly buy millions of dollars of the token to artificially prop up its price, according to charging documents. —Jack Queen, USA Today, 12 Dec. 2025

The tension is building between members of the party seeking an emergency extension of expiring subsidies and conservatives who don’t want to prop up Obamacare. —Burgess Everett, semafor.com, 11 Dec. 2025

Rhymes for prop up

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