pump up

1. Fill with enthusiasm, strength, and energy, as in The lively debate pumped us all up . Mary Wollstonecraft used this idiom in slightly different form in The Rights of Women (1792): “Lover-like phrases of pumped-up passion.”

2. Inflate with gas or air, as in This tire needs pumping up . [Late 1800s]

Related Words

• block
• clog
• close
• cram
• crowd
• furnish
• lade
• load
• overflow
• pack
• permeate
• saturate
• store
• stuff
• supply
• swell
• top