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

: increase sense 1

Synonyms of pump up

• thrill
• excite
• turn on
• electrify

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

In the wild west of the crypto world, a rug pull is a con job where developers pump up the value of a token and then suddenly vanish with the investor funds. — Matt Egan, CNN Money, 4 Aug. 2026

Several stock indexes, including the NASDAQ 100, also relaxed rules for how soon new issues could be included, further pumping up demand. — John Ruwitch, NPR, 4 Aug. 2026

Azerbaijan, already oil-rich, discovered gas under the Caspian Sea in the 1990s and the petrodollars pumped up its coffers. — Literary Hub, 30 July 2026

But there is a more direct way to pump up your Pals, with damage, health, defense and work speed upgrades that go as high as 60% each. — Paul Tassi, Forbes.com, 27 July 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1791, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Rhymes for pump up

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